Returning back to pidgin.
Besides nicer pidgin's GUI that is just matter of personal preferences, I really don't like on gajim (1.1.3 @ Ubuntu 20.04.6 lts):
- no automatic join to chat rooms after connection to server
- advanced option "tabs_position" is ignored or is doing something else I would expect from the name
- incomming messages don't raise chat windows automatically. Missed few important messages
- during logoff I am getting warning that there are some unread mesages but I have no clue who written them (see previous point)

Gajim is now on my list "let's try it again in few years".