20 Mar 2021
I remember back during the KDE3 to KDE4 transition, one feature was broken (or removed then brought back? it's been so long I don't recall exactly), and that is, double clicking the window menu button in the title bar (usually that button is the icon of the application to which that window belongs) would close the window. I was accustomed to using that functionality, both when I used Windows and after I switched to Linux, and it was a bit annoying to see that it suddenly didn't work any more...
So, to workaround that issue, I ended up moving the close button (yes, you can edit those in the KDE desktop (now Plasma) settings, from the "Window Decorations" KCM) from the far right, where it resides by default, to the far left on the title bar. And I've been using that ever since.
Even when I ran GNOME, I used that desktop for a while, I found that you can edit the buttons on the title bar there too, and I moved the close button the same way.
So, to answer my own question, if a workaround works for 10+ years, it ceases to be a workaround and becomes the normal way of doing things ("work" without around?).
A bonus point, is that I can close a window with one click, instead of having to double click on the window menu button (I think the feature was brought back as an option in the "Window Decorations" KCM, "Close windows by double clicking the menu button", but I don't need it any more :)).