"Desktop" here means "desktop environment" aka the whole shell, not just the literal desktop part of the desktop metaphor.

To be fair i think in KDE terms, the desktop refers to the whole experience: the panels, the notifications, the menus, the decorations, the file manager, etc. Also to be fair i think widgets are still mostly focused on the actual desktop part of the "desktop environment"

Sorry to be annoying, i do think the idea in general is bad, i just think i have a better idea of what the devs are thinking if i consider the idea where the entire desktop environment as a whole reacts to how you use it instead of making every single nanoscale decision user-configurable (KDE) or deciding you know better than the user, your way or the highway (Gnome). I don't think they mean the actual like desktop view specifically, or building a dashboard