First, thanks to all who replied.

To me, the ideal solution would be if this was a user-configurable option.
Would be great if you could, for example, just stick something into .bashrc
for any user to allow automounting of USB devices, no matter which DE or
window manager was being used. But I know it doesn't work that way. Just
saying, it would make sense.

pmount - yes, thanks for reminding me. I've used it eons ago. But all it
does is allow one to mount a device without needing sudo. Still not really
automounting.

No one mentioned udevil. I just found it. Also not the same as
automounting, but check out the interesting git home page:

https://ignorantguru.github.io/udevil/

cheers,
Robert