> Krita also has an entire menu of ways to adjust colours,
Yes it does, but it does not have all the tools that Gimp provides.
> and can do them in high bit depth as non-destructive Filter Masks by default
I need to "destructively" modify images more often than non-destructively.
> There is no dedicated "Brightness/Contrast" adjustment anymore, because, as the linked page notes, that functionality is just a specialized subset of the Color Adjustment Curves/Levels.
You can most likely get some similar result if you play around with the curves but it is certainly not as simple or easy as having a dedicated brightness/contrast filter like you can find in other image editing applications. Having that specialization might feel unnecessary for developers who are used to trying to make things more generic, but from a UX perspective it can be very preferable (if your goal is to make an image editing application - from the perspective of a 2D digital painting application, this sort of specialization may indeed feel like UI bloat).
As i mentioned in my original message it isn't so much that you can't do things in Krita, it is more that the stuff that exist are often clunkier and the more you need outside "2D digital painting", the more limitations and clunkiness you face.
Yes it does, but it does not have all the tools that Gimp provides.
> and can do them in high bit depth as non-destructive Filter Masks by default
I need to "destructively" modify images more often than non-destructively.
> There is no dedicated "Brightness/Contrast" adjustment anymore, because, as the linked page notes, that functionality is just a specialized subset of the Color Adjustment Curves/Levels.
You can most likely get some similar result if you play around with the curves but it is certainly not as simple or easy as having a dedicated brightness/contrast filter like you can find in other image editing applications. Having that specialization might feel unnecessary for developers who are used to trying to make things more generic, but from a UX perspective it can be very preferable (if your goal is to make an image editing application - from the perspective of a 2D digital painting application, this sort of specialization may indeed feel like UI bloat).
As i mentioned in my original message it isn't so much that you can't do things in Krita, it is more that the stuff that exist are often clunkier and the more you need outside "2D digital painting", the more limitations and clunkiness you face.