I've been using MacOS for ~2 years, and GNOME in various forms for ~10 years. I'm even typing this comment from a Mac.
For me, the biggest thing is that MacOS has lengthy sigmoidal animations, and no ability to move windows between desktops ("spaces") with a keyboard shortcut.
Those animations are a source of constant friction, and the limited multi-desktop functionality makes single and dual monitor setups very frustrating.
GNOME has neither of these problems, so for these two issues alone, I think it far outshines MacOS's desktop environment.
I'm sure familiarity has a lot to do with it, and I'd argue KDE and Pop! OS's custom GNOME are more polished than base GNOME, but I wouldn't attribute OP's statement to frustration.
I know your reply will be something along the lines of "shouldn't need to do this" but if you're constantly annoyed by the animations there's a terminal command to change the setting so they run very fast or not at all. I have a script to run after a fresh install of macos that speeds up the animations, fixes keyboard repeat, and a bunch of other tweaks to make it more to my liking.
My understanding was that required disabling MacOS's SIP... But a quick search shows me I was mistaken. I appreciate the reply, I'm going to go give it a try.
I don't mind needing to disable the animations, I know it's a useful UI language that most people appreciate. Even on GNOME, Android, Windows, etc. they are on by default.
An update, it seems very few of the recommendations floating around out there work :( The only thing it seems I can change is the dock appear/disappear speed.
There's several things I don't like about the Mac (Settings is now an umitigated disaster, for example), but it's IMHO the best of the bunch, with Windows some way behind, and Linux (anything running Linux) some significant way behind that.
Every now and then I'll fire up a VM and install Linux. Try some stuff, and think "nope, still not the year of the desktop on Linux".
My main system is Proxmox and a Linux VM + GPU. Every couple of weeks I try out different distros. No problems here. Right now I'm on Bazzite (KDE 6) and evaluating if I replace SteamOS with Bazzite on the Steam Deck.
For me, the biggest thing is that MacOS has lengthy sigmoidal animations, and no ability to move windows between desktops ("spaces") with a keyboard shortcut.
Those animations are a source of constant friction, and the limited multi-desktop functionality makes single and dual monitor setups very frustrating.
GNOME has neither of these problems, so for these two issues alone, I think it far outshines MacOS's desktop environment.
I'm sure familiarity has a lot to do with it, and I'd argue KDE and Pop! OS's custom GNOME are more polished than base GNOME, but I wouldn't attribute OP's statement to frustration.