Mike,
this is a great thread and one I'm interested in following too.
I'd also be interested in hearing responses not only from PS advocates
but people who have tried PS as well as things like PSP and GIMP
and 'all of the rest' extensively. Maybe just to get a perspective such as:
'PS can do layers much better than PSP'
'PS does histogram adjustment better than Gimp' etc etc etc....
I dunno
....it's these types of insights that might be helpful.
Apologies for jumping on the thread Mike...
Steve