Comment 39 for bug 1813441

Claiming that Ubuntu could simply have stuck with the previous version of GNOME when shipping the LTS release is failing to see the forest for the trees. Many factors go into the decision of what version of a critical package like GNOME to put in a release. Ubuntu looked at all of those factors and made the decision they did. Unless you were involved in that discussion or have done an analysis similar to theirs, you are in no position to second-guess their decision; you simply are not considering even a small fraction of the information they considered when making it.

Desktop Icons NG was around when 20.04 shipped, though it probably wasn't complete, tested, or stable enough to ship with an LTS release. There have been significant changes since 20.04 shipped.