The fact that developers have mice in mind doesn’t make them necessarily the best option. Furthermore, that even implies that there *is* a best option, and that it’s not completely subjective. I prefer track sticks for cursor movement too, with touchpads again coming in as a close second. In general, track sticks and touchpads work better for me.
You could set the acceleration higher, at the cost of precision. I think it’s a moot point though, given that this is on a laptop, and mice are a pain in the butt when you’re not on a desktop machine, sitting at a desk.
KDE Plasma is a lot better than GNOME. It’s pretty hard for anything *not* to be better than GNOME. I’m honestly not sure how GNOME keeps its popularity.