[snapetom]

You're arguing that software makes or breaks artistry, and it doesn't. Composition, subject, and lighting still get you 90% there. Software just comes in at post and it plays less of a role than the HN crowd thinks it does.

Maybe it's my circles (photojournalists) but none of them care about different algorithms in post. Their artistry comes from a complete mastery of layers and masks along with old fashioned tone and color sliders. Those tools are far more powerful than knowing the difference between method 1 and method 2 of a Gaussian Blur filter that have no discernible visual difference anyway.

[mcdeltat]

Hard agree - you probably aren't making great art from learning a different denoise algorithm, but you certainly are by learning composition skills. There are great photographers out there who barely even touch the adjustments in software. And when they are touching the adjustments, it's probably not so technical focused as choosing a different algorithm. It'll be "creative" adjustments like tone mapping and colour LUTs.