Is GNOME on FreeBSD a good idea? Asking for a friend

Someone (not me, honest), really, really wants to run GNOME on FreeBSD 
and was complaining to me that it won't run the latest version because 
of systemd. I think he's been reading Linux web sites or some such, but 
then again systemd sounds like a plausible problem.

The Handbook says it will do it:

https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/desktop/

Apparently it needs the HAL demon and other stuff enabled that you 
wouldn't normally have, although it's not clear from the handbook 
whether this installs and configures automagically with the port. He's 
new to FreeBSD (I'm just new to the concept of a graphical desktop on 
it). I believe consolekit2 is used to replace that part of systemd that 
GNOME requires.

I thought about digging out a spare monitor, connecting it to a server, 
locating a mouse and trying it out out but it's really not my thing so 
the thought didn't linger, especially if someone else knows the current 
state of play.

IIRC something called KDE Plasma was going to be bundled with the 
installer for 15. Is it in the latest Alpha and is it a good plan (not 
generally, but for my friend)? I can't find much info so I was hoping 
someone hereabouts would have tried it. The official project pages are a 
bit lacking for GNOME and KDE, but IME this proves nothing. Except, 
perhaps, bundling KDE with the installer isn't as realistic as the 
announcement suggested. (https://wiki.freebsd.org/Gnome  
https://freebsd.kde.org/)

NB. Personally I wouldn't know the difference between KDE and GNOME if I 
saw them.

Thanks, Frank.