Many kept Aperture running on a device at home—still used it for their own workflows (many passionate photographers on that team—surprise!). And in fact when it came time to discuss future Photos features there was always a contingent pushing to add back features that were lost in the transition away from Aperture.
While I was there, for example, they pushed (and got) Curves added to the editing pane. Levels had always been there but the purists missed the more laser-focused "curve" adjustments.
They wanted, did not get, the ability to "brush" a setting (the way you might dodge/burn an area of the image).
These days, who knows. Like me, perhaps the old guard have moved on…
(To clarify though, I was never the "old guard" with regard to the Photos team—had never worked on Aperture.)
Apple actually publicly promised they would be doing this when they killed it. But not much ever came of it.
I really don't need many features! I'm not a pro and while I wouldn't mind shelling out a one-time fee for good software I'm not paying a subscription for cloud storage I'm not going to use. The OSS options here are not awesome, either.