I use mate desktop with i3 for the windows management. This means everything just works. Volume keys, brightness, usb storage auto-mounting, complex audio configuration, printers configuration, lock screen, battery management, mouse settings, external displays settings, screenshots and so on and so forth. I get the best of both world. Without Mate, I would have to hack everything together and spend days configuring everything by hand.

If you want to replicate this setup: Start with Ubuntu Mate. Install i3 via apt. Select i3 on the login screen. In your i3 configuration add the following:

   exec --no-startup-id exec mate-settings-daemon
   exec --no-startup-id exec mate-screensaver
   exec --no-startup-id exec mate-power-manager
   exec --no-startup-id exec nm-applet

Welcome to the year of Desktop on Linux.