Oh man I thought I was the only one when it comes to the naming conventions. I've seen it on Cinnamon as well and it's absolutely annoying if you want to figure out the exact name of the software, only to get hit with "Text Editor" but I suppose this does make it easier for those new to Linux to get accustomed to their new environment (probably also the real reason they do this) though I still wish we could switch that behavior off somehow.

While maybe not the perfect match for your search, alternativeto.net might be interesting for you. As the name implies you can search for alternatives for a specific piece of software or just browse through some categories to find something you might like. Comments and reviews will be there to help you out more. Just remember to filter by linux, as you might get results exclusive to windows or mac, and by whether or not the software is free and maybe also open source if you only want to use those.