But as a Darktable user, I found the implementations of strong opinions frustrating because I value actual workflow above potential technical superiority.
Display referred worked fine for me because the important work happens before the shutter is clicked. The skill I want to develop is fixing things in the lens not fixing them in post.
Breaking changes suck.
But again open source developers don’t owe me anything.
What this gives you isn't necessarily the ability to "fix" things in post, but the ability to decide how you want your image presented in a certain medium or format when "developing". Even master photogs like Ansel would take liberties when developing to realize their vision from the negatives they were able to capture.
I mean since you mentioned Adams, for Adams the print was what mattered…the print is the title of the last of his three books series.
Kodak doesn’t change HC-110 every six months because doing so destroys value.
But again it’s his software. I just wish he weren’t so bored as to invent problems to cleverly solve and solutions for which he may argue.
Maybe I could have done a bunch of customization to get it back.
But it would not have been back because my workflow didn’t involve a bunch of customization.
The changes force imposed a mass of non-artistic complexity into my workflow.
The changes didn’t improve my pictures because my results were already good enough for my artistic intent.
Nobody ever looked at a print and wept because it was developed with scene referenced workflow…