Here is the Gnome vs KDE base dependency flowchart

gnome is too big and heavy on dependencies , it's absurde complexity is driven by bonobo and idl/xml stuff
throwed together to make it more like com api from the windows world

Gnome should get rid of these , all the xml crap that slows the desktop

1. GConf – for storing application settings. (keep the settings in ini or json files)
2. Bonobo – a compound document technology.
3. LibXML – an XML library.
4. ORBit – a CORBA ORB for software componentry.

also allow java script and other languages to be included in the main desktop
like javascript , php , pascal ....