I've used Ps for 25+ years and I used other image editors before Ps came into existence. I've moved from Ps to Affinity Photo for my personal work though I still use Ps for my day job, which is 80% Ps work.
I don't think it is correct to state that AF has in any way a steeper learning curve than Ps. In fact, it may be somewhat less steep, though I can't really tell. The issue with switching from Ps to AP is that AP is significantly different in how some things are handled. For old farts with a lot of Ps experience (read: people like me) the switch is a bit of a learning challenge. For a newbie that has little or no Ps experience, I think Ps would be a bit more of a challenge to learn than would AP. My big challenge, being an old-dog learning new tricks, is that I use Ps/CC on macOS, Ps/CS4 on Windows, & AP on Windows. My mouse/muscle memory is very confused at times with the varying keyboard shortcuts, etc.
Perhaps you are correct about AF and PS, but what I find the easiest and nicest part of PS, CS6 non this case, is as follows:
In Bridge I select the new photos to edit, and then open them to do the initial editing or developing under Automatic or on "As Taken" by the camera. In here I can increase/decrease brightness, contrast, add the lens filter, even crop, and so on. I can also increase the brightness and numerous other things of the image... globally, or just locally (a small area of the subject). For example I may want to brighten and sharpen the subject's eyes, and so on. This initial editing is quite easy to perform before the final editing takes place on the screen.
I am having a difficult time figuring how to used all the tools in the "develop" and other Personas of Affinity Photo, so I en-dup going back to CS6. There is something that I find very useful in CS6, and that is getting the final image ready for posting in this and other forums: After I have saved the final-edited image, I select "Image Size" and enter the size I want (900 pixels horizontally), and the image is automatically sized taking into consideration its heigh (something like 900 pixels x give and take 600 pixels). At this point the image on the screen is approximately 50% of its actual size. So I increase the size to 100%, white a logo or my name on the photo, then select "Save For Web" (usually GIF or JPEG). Once the "web-ready" photo is saved, I close the window or delete it to make sure it does not overwrite over itself. Ease of use is why I like PS.
When using PS, a great portion is "pre-editing" of my images. During the final editing, it may be to remove some imperfections using PS first, then the rest of the work is done with the NIK plugins (noise reducer, Vivesa, etc.). NIK is final phase of the editing. I purchased a couple of b books to learn, including the Affinity Photo Workbook, so I will get there sometime in the future
