Gnome 3 isn't for people with low end and legacy hardware, or for those with neurological conditions that inhibit recollection of words.
If you don't have a relatively new and powerful machine and cannot easily recall the names of the Gnome software suite, well, it's not going to work well for you.
I'm running Gnome 3 on a 6-year-old dual-core laptop without any issues, I wouldn't call that recent or powerful. But running it on a Pentium 4 probably isn't the best idea.
About the naming: could you clarify this? The default software launcher allows you to search by keywords as well, so "mail", "email", "calendar" will all launch Evolution. Likewise, "camera", "webcam", or "photo" will all show Cheese. The same applies to all other apps. Granted, the names are a bit bad considering their purpose, but the icons make it quite clear to me.
That's a powerful machine. It won't run well on most common SBCs, for instance, let alone the hundreds of millions of older machines the world over that chug along with older versions of Windows.
Searching by noun is a problem for numerous neurological impairments. Some people have trouble spelling, typing and recollection, and the absence of desktop icons limits their ability to use spatial awareness and movement to operate the desktop environment.
If you don't have a relatively new and powerful machine and cannot easily recall the names of the Gnome software suite, well, it's not going to work well for you.