Dunno, I expect antialiased font rendering in modern software. Talk about overselling.
I’m not sure how anybody considers things like CDE or the the old Windows 9x aesthetically pleasing. Say what you want about MacOS/Gnome/Windows at least they are easy on the eyes
Windows 9x aesthetic is good, except for non antialiased fonts. The same can be said about CDE. Take a look a modern lookalike with AA fonts: https://github.com/NsCDE/NsCDE .
Fonts in nscde still look blurry to me, maybe it is missing kerning or hinting... but looks much better to my eyes.