Comment by hju22_-3

Yes, because it isn't. What version they pump out has nothing to do with viability. It still lacks much of the feature set and functionally of Photoshop, enough so that it's just not a valid comparison, let alone a valid alternative. Like, I've seen people comparing Krita as the better alternative to GIMP, which isn't even designed to fill the same need. But the fact that those comparisons have even occurred should tell you enough about the state of GIMP.