I only tried Affinity with their free trial and think if I had to pay for a software I then I would probably buy Affinity, but I was not in the mood to get a crack version for it now, and I already have Photoshop cracked on my pc since when it comes to large composites I do not have the patience to learn the nuance of the other software. This was mainly a test to finally see if worst case I can turn to GIMP, maybe not the best test but the image composite came out quite well aside from the fact that I am dreading to change anything just because of how odd gimp is with blend modes and such things.

As for quick edits, I actually just use photopea since I just open any browser slap the image in and edit it. Not so grand for images above 4000px with multiple layers, since the browser is already memory hungry it hits my lil 8gb ram pretty hard but for anything else it pretty awesome.

Aside from paying or cracking software, I will still give Krita a look. There are also some node based editing software coming out, some of which is more target to replacing Illustrator, but they can handle raster manipulation rather well in a non-destructive workflow.

So I guess it just comes down to what make life a bit more convenient in regards of no money down. However there is program I don't think I could ever replace unless it is with multiple options , that would be Corel Draw. When it comes to any type of document, large format - billboards, shop windows, magazines, heck just quick multi page flyers or complex shapes then it would take about 3 or more programs to truly replace it.