Nobody is acting shocked. Least the people who learned to use GIMP.
So the people who learn GIMP are fully aware why it gets zero industry use? Thanks, that was my point.
The problem is people like you who are outraged, when asking for a free Photoshop alternative, that the next best thing is not to their likening.
I'm not outraged in the slightest, nor am I asking for a free Photoshop alternative. But I've seen people claiming GIMP is a viable alternative to Photoshop for 20 years and for anything past the most basic use cases, it isn't. You may as well be telling people to use Nano instead of Visual Studio and when they complain about the experience, tell them to code the features themselves.
GIMP has had literally decades of development and even with Photoshop in the worst state it's ever been in, it isn't competitive. There are clearly systemic issues with the project and I'm certain this "head in the sand" mentality is at least partly to blame.