MX-16 is getting great reviews and not just from Dedoimedo.
http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2017/0...-to-ideal.html
No, I won't ask why you deleted the vertical panel when it's easy enough to change its orientation. There are ways to restore a default Xfce panel by deleting the config file and logging out/in but success depends very much on the individual distro and custom icons, like the MX updater, might be one of the casualties. You can always use Synaptic to update.
For me, Google Earth has been pretty unstable on whatever I've tried it on.
For browser, I recommend SlimJet (Linux & Windows - 32bit & 64bit for both). It's faster than Chromium certainly, has built in ad-blocker, is supposedly more secure and has a ton of other stuff included.
https://www.slimjet.com/