Feel free to argue otherwise, but I think GIMP's relevance has waned over the years, which is why I speak in that "past tense" you take issue with. For what it's worth I think Krita has worth in the domain of photo manipulation as well.

Krita also has automation utilities:

https://docs.krita.org/en/reference_manual/main_menu/tools_m...

https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual/python_scripting/intro...

I'm curious how you use GIMP and whether or not Krita would prove usable for you, i.e. if there's some critical specific functionality GIMP excels at where Krita falls behind.