I am not sure if i understand it correct.
I just don't care for xfce. That is just me personally though. I know many do like it and that is why I suggested fsmith make a xfce version.
What i did never understand is why people try to avoid gnome-apps.
Well pulling in 200mb of gnome libs for gedit is kind of silly. In that case avoiding gnome apps (gedit) makes sense. Whereas if you are going to use gedit, gthumb, abiword, gnumeric, brasero, and so forth then pulling in 200mb of gnome libs makes sense.
So I wasn't really saying avoid them but rather decide if you want any gnome stuff and if so then consider using more gnome stuff since they have great apps. Of course since xfce is installed adding in xfce apps isn't going to bloat anything either. So a mix in this case is probably sensible...considering it it almost impossible to go totally gnome (gksu, gconf, gvfs)free.