[CharlesW]

Illustrator is the undefeated champ, and I've loved it deeply since 1987. You're right that nothing can replace it at the high-end. For that audience, a $20/month subscription for Illustrator or an all-apps subscription is a given.

Still, this Affinity upgrade is an insta-upgrade for me. On a practical level, I'm lucky enough to be able to "vote with my dollars" to support small developers and non-subscription software. From a creative perspective, sometimes it's helpful (or just fun!) to work with different tools.

[regular]

Pfff. Illustrator was and is roundly defeated by Corel Draw. Unfortunately the attempt at a Mac version of Draw was a hideously defective failure.

Before that, I'm confident that Aldus Freehand kicked Illustrator's ass.