I think that’s misleading: it’s like scrolling through all the modules in darktable. Don’t forget that in RawTherapee Local Adjustments is not a single tool, but a collection of tools that support local (‘masked’) editing (but can also be used on the whole image). At least if I understand correctly.
Edit: as pointed out below, I did not.
And yes, RT is complex. It was my first raw editor from the freeware (Gábor) era, I have some .pp2 files on my hard disk. I got interested in darktable for several reasons:
- RT showed a crudely downsampled preview that always looked jagged and noisy;
- several tools, maybe more than in the current set, needed 1:1 view;
- my PC was getting old, and darktable added OpenCL at some point (ver. 1.1, November 2012);
- I don’t remember ever finding documentation for some advanced tools, e.g. the CIECAM adjustments. Maybe it was me, maybe it really was missing at the time.
If I now fire up RT, I cannot use any of the more advanced tools. So yes, it is complex.
But honestly, if I was editing in darktable for the first time, would I not be intimidated by some of the modules? Even after 10+ years in darktable, do I understand all the modules, do I use all the controls in them? Of course not. I would assume that both are of about the same complexity.
ART, with its explicit focus on simplification, is different, but even there you have to learn to use the tools. Often the automatically applied settings give a very good image, but if you want to change them, you cannot do so without understanding the tools.
I think RT’s main problem was a lack of visibility, at least in the last two years or so: here, in the forum, we have seen discussions and new developments, Jacques is posting about his improvements and is responding to user feedback, and there are new tutorials, too. But for the general public, who don’t visit pixls.us, there has not much coverage of RT. I really hope that the latest developments (code- and release-wise) will help RT become more visible again. As one of the most important and powerful open-source raw developers, its liveliness (whether it’s the impression that FOSS tools are viable alternatives to commercial software, or actual solutions that directly, via porting, or indirectly, via shared knowledge and ideas, influence other FOSS tools) helps us all.