I just use gnome with pop-shell (though on arch). Been using it for years and never had issues with it. For me it's always felt nicer to have a tiling wm on top of something like gnome.
I too used to use pop-shell a few years ago while using PopOS but for the past 6 month or so I've felt great running Ubuntu 24.04 with the PaperWM Gnome extension.
While Niri might be easier to install on Arch I would still suggest giving PaperWM a try for a week. I ended up missing it waaay too much after disabling it for a few days on a whim and now I can't imagine using a computer without a scrolling WM given the choice.
Just uhh... Keep a keybindings cheatsheet nearby, like the one in the PaperWM GitHub repo.
