I’m not a hardcore Lightroom/Photoshop user, but I have hundreds of RAW product photos that I need to cycle through a few times a year, and a few new ones to add whenever I make a new product. I long-since canceled my CS subscription because it wasn’t worth hundreds of dollars a year to me.

The artcraft versions are rough, but good enough for what I do. Mostly background removal, blemish removal, exposure and white balance adjustments. A professional’s mileage will almost certainly vary.

I’ve tried Gimp, photomator, a few others. The artcraft versions at least retain the muscle memory of the creative suite apps, whereas the alternatives all feel like I need to start from scratch to relearn their features, limitations, shortcuts, and quirks.

If Adobe had frozen features and offered a paid perpetual license pinned at a certain version I probably would’ve bought it.