Vanilla Gnome is certainly different. Some like it that way, others use extensions.
You have a few options...
First, you can get used to the tablet like interface, which is more keyboard centric and touchpad friendly, if using a laptop.
The second is to install some of the common extensions.
To achieve that, you will first want to install "Extension Manager" which is a Flatpak. This will allow you to browser, install, and manage plugins.
Once you have it installed you can open it up and click on Browse.
Two popular ones, if you want to move to a more traditional layout it either dash to dock or dash to panel.
Dash to Dock will give you a more Mac like dock at the bottom, while Dash to Panel will give you more like a Budgie or Cinnamon bottom panel.
Another for you would be "ArcMenu" one word as there is an unmaintained Arc Menu. This gives you a similar menu you may find in Cinnamon or Budgie.
Beyond that, you can look at some of the popular extensions, like status indicators, etc. Gnome relies heavily on third-party extensions.
Beyond that, another Flatpak tool that I recommend is Refine. It lets you control the look and feel more than Gnome does by default.
I am primarily a KDE user, but do like Gnome and use it on a Laptop.
Hope this helps!
