GNOME 1.x, 2.x and 3 from 3.00 to 3.27 supported desktop icons.
They were removed in 3.28: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/01/gnome-desktop-icons-remo...
It was only in 2018. https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.28/
This is not ancient history. It's less than 5 years ago.