I had to look this up, is Gnome Control Center what we normally call "Settings"?
So I didn't read every comment (and accidentally posted this, in the wrong thread last night) but i'd say Less pre-installed software see below. But add flatseal, and gnome tweaks by default since ZorinOS uses components of these and they are very useful.
Direct Upgrade options is always nice 
Or a built in user migration option.
Software can still be pre-configured and deployed in setup based on additional user input, Pro example we have the option of minimal and Full, this could be updated to include other options, such as Creativity - and you get gimp, blender,kdenlive, handbrake ect, Laptop - might include auto-cpufreq or tlp and a minimal install. a gaming option might include steam lutris, kde-games, open-rgb (lol) ect.
Just gives more flexibility and a more user focused customized install while having a consistent product and without having to offer multiple versions for download.
One thing I do miss from ZorinOS is packages not being up-to-date. I think it would be nice to have some of these packages that are frequently installed, or asked about, much better updated through the official repositories.
For example, in this other thread @Aravisian found that flameshot is no longer available on the official Ubuntu repositories.
@337harvey also suggsted Python and Nodejs, two pacakges that while available (and Python is even pre-installed) are not even remotely up to date.
Other programs such as Brave browser are also not available through official repositories at all, although to be fair I don't think this is the case of any distribution for some reason.
I'm not saying that every package should be tracked and updated, or even to the very latest version, but having packages that are over 5 years out of date is very disappointing.
Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu. Ubuntu is based on Debian. There is some control in a distribution over enhancing some updates.
For example, the Zorin OS kernel exceeds Ubuntus current, much less exceeding the original Ubuntu 20.04 kernel.
Which... I will comment on this further in a moment.
But, over-all, ZorinGroup cannot manage all other maintainers packages. Even Ubuntu cannot.
The Package Maintainer is the one responsible for updates. They look over bug reports or feature requests, add, fix or regress as necessary, then upload a new version to the repository. This then passes through Debian, through Ubuntu, through Zorin OS.
Every single one of Zorin OS specific applications are 100% up to date.
You may ask: is this then a Linux problem?
No. It's the same on Windows. It is the same on Mac. It is the same on Android.
And those are just common operating systems that ordinary people use. There are
thousands
of operating systems in the world.
It's. Just. Computing.
So, above, I mentioned further comments on the kernel. And this will continue into further addressing your above comment as it touches on an issue that is a major thorn in my paw.
Zorin OS is using a very high kernel, actually. And we witness first hand on this forum the problems that causes.
It is true that it is not high enough for a handful of users with the latest hardware. But over-all, I have personally witnessed an increase in the trouble-tickets over issues with the kernel on Zorin OS due to regressions.
There is a difference between a package being out of date (outdated) and a package being old.
A package may be out of date of the maintainer has introduced New Features or Bug fixes that would mean you may have the better experience on the later package in the opinion of the maintainer. This does not mean that the older package is outdated. Many users may have no trouble with that bug and not want the latest so-called features. This is why we have apt mark-hold
A package is officially outdated when the maintainer declares that there are ample changes to insist that an older version no longer be used. Period.
It is not when a user says, "I don't like that older version so it is therefor outdated and that is a fact."
A chocolate cheez-whiz eating space dragon ate my underwear and that is a fact.
In human nature, it is common to just want to make things easy. And it is easy for people to look at one number, decide that it is bigger than another number and then decide that = good. No effort to read change logs or research or see if it really applies to them. Just "I want bigger."
Sometimes a user does want the latest. The latest bug fix. The latest features. This is valid and perfectly fine. And they can get that. Nothing is stopping them. The onus is on them to install it, not to expect others to do that extra effort on their behalf much less to force their own wants on all the other users that simply expect a Stable package in the repository that doesn't have the problems of new unreported bugs and regressions, crashes and freezing.
Yep that is the one.
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Distro repositories do not need to cover every app. If the distribution of apps is dependent on distros, major distros will be able to suppress apps that are inconvenient to them.
Would this really apply to the general users of Zorin OS and are you able to install these on your own?
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An user (I can't recall who), mentioned an installation app where users could pick'n'choose which apps should be installed, like picking which browser etc. these apps shouldn't be on the .iso but rather downloaded while installing the OS.
I think it's a nice idea.
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Same - I remember that being mentioned but do not remember who, when or the context. It might have been @JeffK969 , I am not sure.
But the concept behind the idea is a great one - if it could be implemented.
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My example comes from the other thread I linked to, about downloading flameshot from the repositories. When I searched for it, the version available was released in 2018 but the actual .deb package available in the releases page was from 2022 (ok, 4 years instead of 5). Is this not what outdated means?
Wouldn't it be better to use Docker for something like this?
As I said, that topic or issue is a thorn in my paw.
But I apologize to you for using your post as an example since that is a bit misleading. I do not fault your post or choice of words.
I expressed a view I think many readers need based on what your words inspired me to think about when I read them.
If that makes sense.
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Of course! And that actually got me wondered, who is "responsible" from keeping the repositories updated with new packages or security fixes? In this case since ZorinOS is based on Ubuntu, would that be Ubuntu? I imagine ZorinOS has additional repositories for its own packages like themes or Zorin Connect (although I know some are packaged as flatpaks).
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Used to do this for a previous employer, using post windows installer, and asp page, during windows 7 oobe setup user was presented a logo'd web[page and they'd select their department, and then role, and a selection of apps would be pre-selected and then wpi was used to trigger silent installs one after another to custom deploy a workstation for the users role, while the bank only required the burning on a single winpe image for deployments, and installs went over the network.
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Some useful Gnome extensions.
Date Menu Formatter is useful to customize date display in the taskbar. To be honest, I hope that Zorin Taskbar will integrate this functionality.
Clipboard Indicator caches clipboard history. Windows already has similar functionality.
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clipman for zorin lite
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Bring back the applications that were previously available in the previous version of Zorin that are missing in Zorin 16 and Pro/ultimate version has all the applications from the other versions, especially from the Education edition or other edition/versions
I know many people believe there is too much software pre-installed with Zorin Pro. If you have an HP printer, the driver for WIN includes a printer toolbox. In the case of Zorin, the driver is HPLIP, but if you want the toolbox, you have to install it separately (sudo apt install hplip-gui). It would be only a small addition to software that would please newcomers with HP printers, especially to check ink levels, etc.
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Not necessarily an app per se, as I would prefer integration with Zorin connect, but something like Iriun webcam. It turns your phone into a webcam. Very useful for remote working these days.
Edit: I haven't been able to find the source code for Iriun. The most up-to-date website seems iriun.net which also contains most information, while iriun.com contains links pointing to the same versions, but lacks a link to the iOS version. iriun.gitlab.io contains links to older version.
Maybe also chromium. I donāt like it, but many people use chrome and itās the closest thing too it without actually being chrome. You canāt sign in to a Google account fortunately/unfortunately. Iāve run into websites that donāt support Firefox (anymore) and Iād rather fewer people run immediate to Google chrome if they encounter thoseā¦ but yeah I do prefer Firefox personally.
Other than that I find it hard to suggest something that would be in line with what Zorin currently offers.
Most additional tools I use are a bit techie/niche.
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If Linux OS users start using Chromium instead of Firefox, more and more websites will not support Firefox, which is what Google wants in my opinion.
I would like to agree with you and advocate for Firefox. But it seems to me like weāre beyond that point and that the relatively few Linux users wonāt make much of an impact for what web developers support. 
Heck Iāve even encountered websites that directed me to āunsupported pagesā for both Firefox and Vivaldi (which identifies as Chrome) because I used Linux. Which is ridiculous. 
When I spoofed the user agent of Firefox to appear as Google Chrome on Windows the website worked flawlessly. 
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I expect that the end of support for Windows 10 will increase the number of Linux OS users. I learned about Zorin OS because Win11 did not support my PC.