Ypu are right, i forgot to add MATE to that list. Almost any larger distro (and many of the smaller, like Salix) offer MATE and the people use it. Simple reason: Why should they change to XFCE if they can keep their Gnome 2 experience with using MATE?
Why do you think that the MATE developers are only releasing hacks to Gnome 2?

From Stefano Zacchiroli, Debian Project Leader:

Can you translate to layman's terms?

http://www.debian.org/devel/leader
In short, Stefano Zacchiroli is the elected leader of the Debian developers and should be the first to know about a switch in the default environment. There is no switch, which can easily be proven, as he explains, by downloading a Wheezy image and installing it.

If MATE manages to get rid of obsolete libraries it might end up as a DE with active upstream in future, otherwise it's like keeping KDE3 alive. It can be done(Trinity DE) but little point. DEs die, gnome2 died, kde3 died, many more before those.

To spare me the hassle of a download and install can you confirm the default dekstop environment for Debian 7 is _______?

Just to be sure I downloaded the Wheezy Beta 2 image and installed it. It comes up with Gnome Shell by default.

rizzy there is nothing wrong with MATE, the current devs are working on it and doing a good job. They have removed useless dependencies and are moving towards GTK3.

I think it is interesting that in the Linux ecosystem which values freedom so many people are against keeping things that are tried and true just because the original devs have dropped it. Maybe if people actually got in and did some research and used the things they are commenting on we could take what they say with more authority. Unfortunately this, it seems, is not happening instead we are getting people commenting on things they have no interest in and have not kept up to date with.

Just wanted to throw it into the mix here.
I've recently become interested in the SolusOS project due to there plans to migrate to the PiSi package management, and have been lurking the forums ect. SolusOS is currently based on Debian stable and focused on Gnome2. Ikey, the project leader i believe; plans on continuing to use gnome in future releases, but will be hacking up fallback mode and forking Nautilus, and has made claims that the result will be almost identical gnome2 in gtk3.
I think this is great. It differs from Cinnamon in that Cinnamon is a shell like Unity, and Gnome shell; while the SolusOS de will be the more traditional environment, where the panel is it's own program, ect. This stuff matters to me, because it annoys me how each part of the desktop environment in these new shells can only be used in the shell, eg try using the plasma-desktop panel in xfce or something; vice versa, no problem.

Regardless of what Mintites say Cinnamon is a modified Gnome 3 just like Unity is a modified Gnome 3. If it wasn't for Gnome 3 neither Cinnamon or Unity would exist simply because they use the underlying code base of Gnome 3 and add a different look.

I never said anything to imply differently. I was just making the comparison to Cinnamon because Cinnamon and the future SolusOS desktop have a remarkably similar goal, but the two projects are taking different roads to accomplish it.
Like you said Cinnamon is just a different shell on the Gnome underlying code, but the future SolusOS de is not a shell, it's a hacked fallback version of Gnome.

Nobody really cares about Gnome 3, simply because nobody is using it directly. People are using shells on top of it, be it Cinnamon, Gnome Shell or Unity. The approach that SoulsOS and MATE take is different from that. They are not building something new on Gnome 3, they port the old versions to GTK3.