That's the thing. For people just doing occasional graphics/image/design work (for fun or minimal profit), it's insane to pay Adobe-level money. In the past, you could at least buy a consumer-level Photoshop (Elements) for under $100 (my mom has it and it serves the needs to most consumer-level users). But I don't even know if they offer that anymore. And even if they did, I'm pretty sure they don't offer "Elements" versions of Illustrator or InDesign.
So what are hobbyists/casual users gonna do?
At least with the Affinity stuff, with this sale/promo in place, one has the ability to outright own three solid, integrated, learn-one-and-you've-kinda-learned-them-all design/imaging/creative apps for just $75. I don't know how long that will hold in terms of free updates and all, but I assume at least through all the 1.x releases, which is all I've known for over a year. If/when they finally go to a super-major 2.0 release of everything, they'll either offer a nice path to existing people or will probably offer sales and promos like they are now. I'm not really worried about it. Even if I had to pay full $50 price every 18-24 months, fine.
All I know is that the $25 I paid for Designer 14 months ago has been more than worth it, when I look at how much I've used it and how much I've gotten from it. The numbers just work out better, for me, than if I were paying Adobe's subscription prices (and not truly requiring, at this point in my life, anything Adobe offers).
Again, it isn't for everyone and I'm fully aware of that (this thread is in no way directed toward the Adobe diehards or workflow lock-ins). But it would do the job for
most people out there, I'm sure, who need to do the kinds of things Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign do, without all the expense, learning curve/overhead and "Adobe-ness" (bloat, etc.) of going with the 800 lb. monkey in the room.
I know some - was it Frank777? - who don't like the idea of same-brand suites and being locked-in, and I can understand that. But I actually
do prefer that because a) I'm a bit lazy, and b) I'm a complete scatterbrain these days, and so much shares and carries over (interface, tools, shortcuts, overall approach, etc.). I'd rather have a 2-3 part collection from the same company with the same overall look/feel/approach than to have to learn Inkscape, Pixelmator and yet another page layout/publishing app, etc.
YMMV.
As I say above, this Affinity stuff has a nice "learn one and you've kinda learned them all" aspect to it. The same way Adobe's stuff, at its best, offers. Shared language, interface elements, approaches, "rules", etc. That's worth something to some people (me). This old dog ain't learning much new in the way of tricks, so...
