I think the Desktop needs innovation more than ever. But right now everything IMO just gets worse. I'm using a reactionary and dead simple XFCE. But I don't want this to be the future.
The important thing to remember - and that the CADT development model forgets - is that most new ideas are bad.
I recall the hilarity when GNOME 3, after claiming "no no we're making it tablet-friendly!" was busted clearly not actually having a tablet amongst any of their developers ... because it was literally impossible to get out of the screensaver using the on-screen keyboard. http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3017371&cid=4083522... Their claims of developing for tablet users were literally delusional.
My current fervent hope is that Xfce just does 4.x versions forever and never goes to a CADT-cursed 5.x.