MacOS and RiscOS at least were still going in 1995. Not to mention OS/2 was around. There really were better alternatives to both 3.11 and 95. A shell sitting on top of DOS was always quite hacky. They were big advances for people in the IBM compatible ecosystems who needed DOS compatibility, but not in a general sense.
For PC users, Win 3.11 and Win 95 were both BIG advances at the time, no matter how they look to us in retrospect.