I'm sure for anyone who has real work to do, GIMP will hold them back compared to Photoshop.
But I grew up using GIMP and got some pretty impressive results with it. Now that I have Adobe CC access and have been using Photoshop through that, I am perpetually confused on how to do x, which I know how to do in a couple clicks in GIMP.
To be fair, I'm sure that'd go doubly so for someone who started with Photoshop since it does have an objectively cleaner UI.
Photoshop also lacks the automation features of the GIMP which makes it feel like a toy in comparison if your workflow usually involves performing the same repetitive actions on batches of images. Like, "how can anyone stand working with this‽ Everything is so manual!"
Oh cool, didn't know that about GIMP! I've always wanted something more powerful than the Action Sequencer in Photoshop. What extra can you do in GIMP?
I’ve moved on to many paid, but not subscription apps mostly from independent shops. But I’m a designer using a Mac so your results may differ.
Photoshop -> Pixelmator Pro (Affinity Photo is ok too)
UX -> Sketch
Illustrator -> Affinity Designer / Sketch
Indesign -> … I hate when someone sends me a indesign file. I don’t do book, magazine, or catalog layouts anyway. PDFs are better and I can edit them in a bunch of apps.
I do still use Autodesk Fusion for 3D hobby projects, but I’m planning to switch to Ondsel (FreeBSD) over the winter.
Yeah, I think you can argue for Krita, but it isn't fully there for everything photoshop does.
I paid for Affinity Photo 2 and that does the trick for photo editing at a reasonable price. I really wish Gimp was up to it. Blender is really showing up most of the rest of that list, and of those Photoshop is where I think the biggest opportunity would be for a Blender-quality Gimp rework or alternative.
I don't understand why people say GIMP needs a UI rework. It seems vastly more intuitive than Blender's UI 🤷
Don't get me wrong: I love Blender--use it all the time for adding organic-like shapes to CAD stuff--but you can't just sit someone down in front of the default cube and expect them to be able to get working. They'll need a tutorial at the very least.
If you sit someone down in front of GIMP for the first time and ask them to perform common photo editing tasks they'll have it figured out pretty quickly. Eventually they'll get good at it. So much so that if you then take that person and put them in front of Photoshop they'll be annoyed that they can't follow their usually quick workflow.
Part of the problem is that 3d nodeling is unintutive in general imo. I have used both solidworks and blender and can say after learning both, they both have very steep curves (although solidworks has fun mesh rebuild errors to top everything off).