there’s the “add tiling features to a DE” path – Pop Shell / Cosmic DE is the best known, but KDE has some pretty decent options and there’s a couple Python scripts (at various stages of readiness) for Xfce
or the “add a DE to a tiling window manager” – Regolith is the best known here (basically swapping i3 for Mutter), but along those lines it’s “relatively” easy to swap out window managers in the desktop of your choice (i3 + Xfce being an easy choice)
unless you are a developer, there’s not a whole lot to worry about – you’ll switch from one to the other when your distro switches and, chances are, you’ll never notice
the drama comes from the fact that the Linux community loves choices (and arguing over those choices) and, as @skullgiverpoints out, most of the choices have fallen by the wayside over the years
“There will probably be an awkward period before all of these pieces are in place for all of the people.”
I think these are the two key takeaways – Wayland is still in development and the bandwagoning are the early adopters – most of us will switch when our distros switch (and will probably be none the wiser)
the problems (and the reason we’re suffering through sensationalist stuff like “Wayland breaks everything!”) is the fanboy push to switch before it’s ready – not everybody lives on the bleeding edge (just like not everyone runs Arch) and the “switch now or be left behind” attitude does more harm than good (far more likely to alienate than convert) …
even simpler – Firefox will auto-detect a lot of search engines – right-click in the search/address bar and if Firefox can detect it, bottom option will be to add that engine to your list