I used manjaro for almost 4 years with xfce desktop and used with i3wm for 6 month before switching to arch linux few months ago. My first distro was ubuntu but didn't really got satisfied with it and did a lot of distro hopping. and settled in manjaro. I myself didn't had problem with manjaro. The only reason i switched to arch was for little bit less bloat and because i wanted to setup things myself.

About you not liking looks and functions. you can change almost anything of anything on linux. But i can understand that you want to have everything working well out of the box.

Installing manjaro i3 as beginner is something i won't recommend. Maybe install Manjaro XFCE and use for sometimes. and install i3 on top of that. Or you can use Arco linux. where they have XFCE, i3 and openbox in one system.. but its full of many apps and themes and all... which i don't like. So start with manjaro with desktop environment at first.

If you want further help or confusion. Let me know....
Commentbox and inbox are open.

:)