They had switched their Photomator spinoff to subscription pricing in 2022: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/wrieaa/pixelmator_ph...

It's within the realm of possibility that a relaunched version of Pixelmator Pro could have subscription pricing as Apple has been playing with that with Logic Pro on iPad: https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro-ipad/start-a-logic-...

It's the sweet spot for me. I don't edit images for a living, but I push pixels around enough for hobbies (e.g. making video game maps) that I want something user friendly and pleasant. Pixelmator Pro has way more features than I'll ever need or use, and all the ones I do need are ergonomic to me, a person who doesn't have decades of Photoshop muscle memory.

This is the market GIMP needed to fill but doesn't. It's definitely capable but it's never been "friendly and pleasant" to my eye.

I used GIMP for years and years before Pixelmator came around, and the first time I tried Pixelmator was the last time I used GIMP.

As others here mentioned, Krita is also much nicer. If Pixelmator didn't exist it's probably what I'd use instead.

Paint.NET fills that market also, but it's Windows-only shareware.

Krita feels like GIMP done right to me,

I am using both[1] and I never understood these kind of comments. Their UI is so similar.

[1] Krita more as paint tool on my Lenovo Yoga, Gimp more as an editing tool on other computers.

As long as there continue to be tutorials for how to draw a circle in GIMP, they will not seem alike to me.