I am big fan of running only a WM and other needed components, so I will 'address' these 'issues'
[*]No need to write/change commands on .xinitrc file and restart Xserver to just change a wallpaper.
To add something to system/WM/DE startup, You have to edit
~/.xinitrc or 'click-all-the-way' in some graphical app to add another thing to startup, similar effort here, I would even say that
~/.xinitrc is simpler and faster, but thats for me. As for wallpaper, I run
random_wallpaper.sh at
~/.xinitrc, so everytime I boot I have different wallpaper (random from
~/gfx/wallpapers). Dunno if each DE has an option for random wallpaper at start.
[*]No need to resize the wallpaper to be right shown on my desktop.
Its 2012 mate, I do not know an application that DOES NOT scale wallpaper to the screen size, I use
feh for that.
[*]No need to play with .Xdefaults file just to change transparency on terminal.
That depends what You use, if its xterm/urxvt, then no matter if You use DE or WM, You still HAVE to edit it, if You use LXTerminal or other 'graphical' terminal, then no matter if You use DE or WM, its clickable in both.
[*]No need to play with *WM files just to change theme, fonts etc.
Probably not all WMs provide wrappers for that, but Openbox does have graphical GTK2 wrappers for that, like
obmenu and
obconf and some others.
[*]You have icons on desktop and and easy add/remove them without playing with files.
Many WM users have icons on the desktop, its as hard as launching
nautilus or
pcmanfm with desktop, its the same as in 'full' DE.
[*]Also I use a lot "Download on Desktop".
Personal habbit, will not comment on that
[*]You can have compiz (I don't use it but other people use it)
Do You still are amazed by 'wobby windows' or just need to be productive?
[*]I prefer cairo clock for clock.
Cairo-dock can work the same way launched with WM as in full DE.
[*]Shutdown, Restart, suspend, hibernate, logout, are just buttons. No commands every time.
When did You last hibernate Your FreeBSD?
Its also a simple wrapper, can be written in py-GTK2 for example, its just 4 buttons with 'links' to commands, fully achievable with WM.
[*]Keyboard, mouse and a lot of other settings are not "change the configuration file".
For the keyboard, its probably more convenient to use system tray application that will change the keyboard layout on the fly the launching some keyboard configurator for it, these graphical configurations also only use
xset to change the settings, so add them to You WM and You have that option too. Also, I do not remember when I last changes my mouse sensitivity or speed, probably when I change hardware, if You change hardware a lot, that can be useful feature.
[*]You can have widgets like superkaramba, gdesklets etc.
Same as in WM.
[*]You can have transparency effects when you move a window etc.
Same as in WM, but sometimes requires
transset-df or other stuff.
[*]Almost every computer this days have enough memory to run them.
Today its more about having some annoying parts of the DE that You do not use, for example You like
xfwm4 because of new Windows Aero Snap features, but feel that
nautilus just better suits You, just an example.
So. I am not against wm. Me too I run *wm and I like fluxbox, opencde, twm and dwm. Just I believe that for my deskop xfce is better solution. Is desktop.
Using WM is not about editing every configuration file by hand, or using only a bere WM and pretending its fun. Its about CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING every part of Your 'DE', not only just a WM, the file manager, then settings manager (
lxappearance), then taskbars (I use
conky +
tint2 +
lxpanel for example). Using WM is about building Your WM piece by piece to finaly make You happy and more productive, if You do not know what You want, here, take a full DE, its all there.
When I want to change wallpaper witch is something I do very often, is no need to resize the wallpaper, change the path on
.xinitrc and restart Xserver. I can do it in the 1/4 of time and much more easy
To change a wallpaper I only have to click one button on my
lxpanel and then a new random wallpaper from
~/gfx/wallpapers is set up, of course scaled to both of my screens. If I have to change X11 screens layout, I use
arandr if You ask