Themselves.

Most of the paper ones are plastic coated.

People in China drinking hot water in summer is equivalently weird to Americans drinking ice water in winter.

What was more in central Europe?

KDE Plasma may be a lot more customizable than Gnome, so you might be able to find something more like what you are looking for there. I would do a web search for varied examples if I were you.

You could search for more Gnome examples too. I believe Gnome requires more in the way of plugins for customization, so you might have to seek out examples of gnome plugins that customize look and feel or window styling. I’m just speculating here, I don’t really know Gnome very well.