alt Hacker NewsI'm not sure how what Adobe insists on is at all relevant.
Reality informs us that there have always been competitors in the field: GIMP, DarkTable, ACDSee, Luminar, and many others.
It's surely true that their existence has been pushing Adobe to improve. And the good news for everyone is that they have: Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop are improved products now, and so are those other competitors.
Inertia, wide use across various industries, and specific features not available in other products.
Basically, it's the Microsoft Office of print and visual media.