Upgrades have ended but Corel support gave me a final chance to upgrade (from X8) to 2019. However, this costs AU$309.00 + AU$140 ("upgrade protection") = AU$449.00. I already have to spend AU$890 p.a. for an Adobe CC subscription and that's mandatory as all my client files are sent to me in Illustrator or Indesign. On top of that I've now got the Affinity Suite running, which is an absolute bargain at AU$80.00 per application for three apps (photo , designer and publisher, perpetual licences).
I've been using CorelDraw since the first version, so that's 31 years, but over the past decade I've only pulled it out a few times a year for special jobs - processing DXF files or doing logo designs. I still prefer Corel's curve editing approach - I love the way you can delete nodes but retain a curve shape, the right-click menus for adjusting node types etc. and a lot of the more technical aspects. Other things still give me the s**ts but I won't nit-pick all of those here. Basically I stuck with Corel as I wanted to support an alternative to Adobe, and because the package was good value with a big pile of fonts and stock imagery (available as a bulk package, not the "browse in the cloud" pain-in-the-ass that they now offer).
But then Corel (the company) started to change its attitude and is behaving like a baby-Adobe. It looks like they want to move to a subscription-style approach eventually. That's fine, but if I'm going to rent software I'll rent Adobe CC, as I can make use of Photoshop, Illustraotr, Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver and XD at the very least, and Photoshop absolutely kills PhotoPaint.
The final problem is this - I just can't afford to spend AU$449.00 now to get an upgrade to the 2019 version, and I've heard from these forums that CD2019 is a buggy mofo. That means if I ever want to upgrade in future I'd be looking at circa AU$900.00 to get back into CorelDraw, money that can be better spent elsewhere. It's a sad day for me, but I'm going to have to say goodbye to Corel. Maybe it's still good value if you have a shop that works only in Corel, but for me it's just an additional tool for very occasional usage and I can't justify the cost of that any more. I wonder if there are many more peeps like me who just liked having it around for odd-jobs rather than a daily mainstay?
So, goodby CorelDraw.
My problem many times is that the files I get shouldn't be as complex as they are. However!
I will agree CorelDRAW is pricey for the non professional CorelDRAW user. However when it's working it should be, it's not for hobbiests.
For me it seems that everything quickly gets to precision placement and 20+ feet has become the norm.
Illustrator files can certainly consume more hard disc space than a CorelDRAW CDR file containing the same vector objects. I think Illustrator is more prone to bog down when lots of "live" raster based effects are added to objects. If the user creates a full size large format design yet leaves the document resolution at a high setting like 300ppi then AI will really be liable to bog down.Still, there are some things I very much prefer doing within Illustrator than CorelDRAW, such as manually digitizing paths over hand drawn artwork. The keyboard short cuts for the pen tool are far superior. And Astute Graphics Inkscribe tool is like Illustrator's pen tool on steroids. That combined with the Ctrl-Alt-Spacebar keyboard short cuts combos to zoom-in/out and hand pan the view just make vector path drawing so much faster. In CorelDRAW I constantly have to go back and forth clicking tool bars to do many of the same things.
The CTRL-ALT-Spacebar shortcuts you mention are second nature to me now, which is why I find it easy using the Affinity products. As you say, the AI modifier keys for the pen tool are pretty good too, although strangely I find tracing paths easier in Photoshop(!).
Photoshop uses the same pen tool keyboard shortcuts (and the same zoom in/out and hand pan keyboard shortcuts) as Illustrator. I think the difference is the paths in Photoshop are less resource hungry than path drawing in Illustrator. Additionally the vector paths drawn in Photoshop will have exact placement in relationship to the underlying pixel-based image. The main purpose for this is creating accurate vector clipping masks for images. But I use it for other purposes too. In vector drawing programs the placement can appear to shift slightly over a placed image based on zoom level. On the other hand Photoshop's pen tool is not great for drawing clean paths over technical looking artwork. That's where Illustrator can shine, based on more anchor point editing tools. The Inkscribe pen tool takes things a major leap forward. It's very easy to get spoiled to that tool for digitizing purposes.
The problem with Affinnity is too narrow a work environment, color management is awful, no LAB. A joke if you're in a manufacturing environment.
Adobe AI lacks a large enough page size and not only crumbles as you get on the high side of 500 mb, it gets there quickly. It's just my hunch but I get the felling it's the least understood Adobe application by Adobe users.
Photoshop is certainly a comprehensive image editor, unfortunately 90% of the innovations in the last decade seem geard to amateurs.
However the coding for the display has become so soft that high quality print work and editing seems to be suffering. Yes the work looks good on those $400 and cheaper displays and web browsers but take the same work into an Eizo, Asus or top of the line ViewSonic and the work is awfu. (Yes I know these displays cost thousands of dollars but play hard or go home. )Then move the same work to print and it's CLIENT REJECTION in mass quantities. You see this when you get images purchased on line, well over 90% are nearly unusable.
Photo-PAINT has an extra sharp default setting for the display that I change for web work but the quality of the display is excellent. Specifically for architectural images and interior design work.