Both GNOME ands KDE are the problems.
In a certain way, XFCE also joins the group.
All try to manage sessions, security, X and the kitchensink. Be a better Windows than Windows (better than worse still is bad
)
Obviously they will run into precedence/incompatibility problems sooner or later.
One of which is reserved/mapping memory.
Then, you have OS problems. On a multi-boot machine I need both PS/2 and USB keyboards and mice.
Then you have BIOS problems.
All you can say is:
GNOME version xxx breaks on OS yyy, is bad luck while
GNOME version zzz on OS nnn was working correctly.
GNOME version xxx on OS nnn might not work either.