We have also been building workflows for over a decade. Once darktable clicks, it can be quite fast and simple.
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This article explains many important concepts underpinning modern darktable:
It’s really more of a color grading tool. Indeed, I believe that’s what the (somewhat) equivalent is called in Lightroom. The closest to HSL would be color eq or color zones.
For a deep dive into some of these modules, this YouTube channel is recommended:
https://www.youtube.com/c/AurélienPIERREPhoto
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Despite the similar structure of the name, do not expect darktable to be some kind of Lightroom clone – it’s pretty much the opposite, trading comfort for control.
You may want to try ART, a fork of RawTherapee (RT), which aims to trade some control for a simpler workflow. Both RT and ART have an option to approximate the in-camera tone curve automatically, to give you a decent starting point.
I find darktable very efficient for basic edits, pretty much by using just the default modules and a keyboard shortcut or two, plus a few styles (most of the time, the same style, with a bit of colour boost and sharpening / local contrast enhancements). Once you find the tools you use, and set up some custom styles and presets, and a few shortcuts, it can be pretty quick. Check those introductory videos, and resist the urge to turn all all modules 
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It may be just me, and the particular photos that I take, but I prefer dt/Sigmoid’s starting point to RT’s camera-jpeg curve.
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I’d never turn on all modules haha but basically I need DT to give me a base edit including some color adjustments. All the rest is done in Affinity Photo anyway. Changing my whole workflow (LR and PS) was maybe a bit rushed but I’m slowly making way with my first full production of a shoot I did forcing myself to get it done in DT and AP. It is taking much longer and I have to constantly refer to tutorials or manuals for specific stuff but I’m getting there and I’m getting faster. So that’s nice to see. 
What do you do in Affinity Photo that’s a lot easier than in darktable? (I don’t know AP at all.)
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Retouching mostly. Frequency Separation, dodging and burning, selective stuff. Basically the final touches before exporting and publishing.
My workflow always consisted of LR to do the base and PS to do retouch and artistic stuff, cloning, painting basically. Which you can’t do on that level neither in LR nor DT
Darktable supports all those (may not be ideal for lots of retouching).
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It might offer a couple of functions but by far not in a way a photo editor could. DT is a raw developer and not really meant to do high end retouching. 
Dodging and burning is achieved very well in DT by using multiple instances of exposures and localizing adjustments using a variety of drawn and parametric masks options. It also has an excellent retouch module, however when I am doing photo restoration of scanned images with scratches and spots I usually default to the healing tool found in GIMP. Destructive editors like GIMP and PS are probably quicker than non-destructive editors such as DT for cloning and healing.
I have found DT more capable than LR and the excellent options of drawn and parametric masks to localized edits in each module has removed 99.9% of my need for GIMP or PS. I am not trying to talk you out of using AP in your workflow if it works for you, but in time many more capabilities will become obvious to you that you are unaware of at this early stage of using and learning DT.
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Have you read this?
A new module: retouch
Split-frequency editing
darktable 2.6 | darktable
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I never used LR to retouch - maybe to get rid of sensor spots or dust. But the artistic retouching with painting, dodging burning, clone stamping, frequency separation, masking stuff, refining etc. that is something I wouldn’t want to even try in DT. I am so used to layers and my tablet for painting that learning to do that in DT would take forever.
However - @kofa thanks for the info. I will definitely look into it to see what it can do and if it could integrate into my workflow.
But in the end, all my edits (after retouching) include some sort of treatment with the NIK filter suite and a predefined set of adjustment layers that I have used for years. To achieve that in DT would probably give me a similar result but I doubt it would be identical. 
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That is your choice, but I am not sure I understand why. They work fine, and then allow you to do everything in a single program. The building blocks are similar to other editing software.
I tried the frequency separation just for kicks and it’s not for me or I’m doing something wrong. But I feel I have more control doing it the “old” way which doesn’t bother me. I don’t have to do everything in one app also considering the slow export speeds
I agree. Use what ever app suits your needs. I still sometimes need the use of layers and masks which I use GIMP for. I do panorama stitching in Microsoft ICE. But dodging and burning is definitely something that DT is great at. Also, its retouch feature can be better than other programs for some special cases. Such a case is when there are large areas of damage in the background of a scanned image. Good luck with all your programs.
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