But, we are just Debian users here, we don't have any say in what the
Gnome and Chromium developers do. Sorry.
P.S. Many did not like the idea of systemd either, but that is another issue,
On Debian, the developers and packagers have choose to follow a certain
path,... There is not really any thing we can do to change that. I don't think
very many developers pay much attention to what goes on here on this forum.
but could be wrong on that.
The only solution I personally could find, was to start looking for applications and sources that suit me. Essentially those that wish to keep using GTK 2 are going to have to learn how to compile and build their own, like wise those that
don't like or want systemd, have started working on non-systemd systems,..
I don't know if they are using GTK2 or 3, some others may chime in on that.
Even in the BSD's , this is a issue,
https://www.reddit.com/r/openbsd/comments/5b33po/xfce4_goes_gtk3/Again, I stopped using Gnome, Chromium,(a long time ago) and these kind of applications, started using a WM, and mostly my own customized apps, for my browser I am using Seamonkey, and do not have any of the issues associated with Gnome,and Chrome or Chromium.