Indeed, yet I heard Gnome want since quite some time now distance itself from GNU, as an independent, not GNU-related project.
Furthermore, the (not always implementd) will to go toward a “cloud” (SaaSS) approach, recalling me the dark times of the French Minitel, scared me and hinted me that user-freedom is not anymore their goal, if not the abstract believe in superiority of the “open source” method. And I sincerely believe that, as GnuTLS, the current state of both projects is they can’t be dismissed, reappointed or anything by rms. I believe if Gnome became a “cloud” software, unable to work without a central server, and rms wanted to dub MATE as the new “GNOME”, he couldn’t (same as for GnuTLS, which pose way less issues in regards of software freedom).