The biggest issue with GIMP is its weird UX choices. They should just make it more like Adobe's UX. I know there's tools that bring it closer, but the fact still is that they do some really dumb shit when it comes to experience decisions. Like if I want to change the font of what I'm typing, it works like this... https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2f57b518-29cc-4fbb-8aaf-9849bb5e80d2.gif
I have to TYPE in the font I want, no dropdown, and the font selection toolbar off to the side just straight up doesn't apply to what I've typed or selected... and this is AFTER I ran one of those GIMP retrofit tools that tries to make it more in line with Photoshop.
Seriously, I've used Photoshop since 5.5 (not CS 5.5... FIVE POINT FIVE in 1999), and I STILL have to watch a tutorial for almost every single action I could intuit in 5 seconds from Adobe's garbage malware tool.
That being said... the one important thing that GIMP is not... is Adobe garbage malware... GIMP just has a janky UX that no one's going to bother fixing b/c the tool is free so no complaining!
And in any case, just like with Blender coming on to the scene in earnest like a decade ago to end Autodesk's defacto monopoly with its $$$$ per year licensing scheme for proprietary 3D modelling tools... with Adobe rapidly getting worse, and just like with Unity's "pay us per install" debacle made people jump ship to Godot - never to look back... I'd bet that GIMP is going to begin accelerating its improvement... or that Krita will do the same and overtake it in popularity.
...And once that happens, Adobe is cooked. And it can't happen soon enough.