I think this is an overstatement. It sounds like many in this thread are content with a workflow where photos are grouped together in a folder and edited individually. However having the integrated DAM also makes it easier to perform batch edits across groups of photos.
I think this debate mostly boils down to a question of folders versus tags. For decades we’ve had folder-centric interfaces because some designer made the decision that replicating a digital analog of the physical office desktop of the 1980s would be familiar and therefore easier for people to adopt.
Decades later, we’re still struggling to break free of the artificial limitations imposed by maintaining analogs of the physical world in the digital one.
I prefer the tag-centric approach used by DT. I do have some complaints about the technical implementation of DTs catalog, but I don’t think the solution is to delete the DAM from DT and use a different, more folder-centric tool.
If you don’t like DTs DAM you don’t have to use it, its existence doesn’t cripple it as an editor in any way. In that sense, DT already supports the variety of workflows that have been suggested.
I think the more interesting argument for splitting it out, which I rarely hear, would be if you LIKE DTs DAM but wanted to use it with a different editor instead of DT.
DT’s DAM is one of the reasons I have stuck with DT and not spent a lot of effort testing RT.