Currently, as it is right now, I am subscribing to your interpretation of this, as I feel the same way. Having said that however, we have to keep in mind too, that this is a newly released OS. And there is gonna be bugs, and weird things going on, thats just how it is.
If you followed my post on my experience, things went so backwards that I popped my top off, and released so much steam, I drenched my walls in percepetation! So, in your specific case, looks like your trying again right away, good deal!
For me, I am entering a patient waiting mode. I am going to let the dev's figure out whats what, fix what they can, push some bug fixes, or changes, whatever is needed. If they want feedback from me, I will provide it as needed.
When I am ready, I will try out XFCE again. But for now, I feel the same way as you do, and I am back on my stable Gnome experience. But I haven't installed games on either OS variations, because again, I am in the waiting period.
I haven't decided which OS is gonna win out here for games. What I do know is, I'd prefer to use XFCE, cause just as you said, it performs far better in sheer speed performance, smoothness, and less resource usage out of box experience.
Those are some of the best aspect of XFCE, plus it being customizable of course. I am hoping XFCE in LITE will get more stable in the future from updated fixes and the like. But yes, Gnome is more stable.
Kees, were in this boat together dude. But please keep us updated on your LITE/XFCE experience, I will be following any posts you make on the subject. I am trying to stay informed.