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". 

 Gajim is Windows/Linux.  Dino is Linux only and cleaner. But you asked me about cross-platform.
The whole different clients thing is a decentralization thing. 

 In a company supporting 2 OSes for employees, you still want to support just one messenger. 

 You won't miss messages on Dino.  For Gajim, maybe notifications, but it will still be on the list panel 

 Yeah I understand where you’re coming from.  I do.
I’m just saying XMPP is more private, decentralized, and the user has more control