I experienced something simmilar. Authors, comedians and actors were mostly from our or neighbouring states, and man were they brilliant. In my case it was rather a kind of comedy, that was heavily relying on spoken word, but those guys really knew their craft.

I do almost all raster work in Krita. Aside for drawing, I find it more than usable for photo editing. You just have to play around long enough to get the muscle memory and learn a few tricks.

I guess it depends on everyone’s preferences.