Re: Krita or Glimpse might be the answer here
I'm not sure why you think that issue with GIMP is a refusal to be an image creation program. From my experience the feature set is roughly on par with that of Photoshop, the lack of CYMK support being the notable exception. No, the real problem with GIMP is and always has been it's horrible and incoherent interface, and a name that makes it embarrassing to recommend*. I have looked at Krita from time to time but its feature set is pretty limited and seems to aim at being a paint program (somewhere between MS Paint and Corel Painter but unfortunately much closer to the former) and that's not something Photoshop has ever aspired to being despite the presence of "artistic" brushes. I've installed Glimpse 0.1 and as you at the moment it's just the old GIMP with a new name but I have hopes for it. Meanwhile I'll stick with Paintshop Pro which has alway been able to give Photoshop a run for its money.
*I don't personally have a problem with it but others have their sensitivities and the developers' response to suggestions of a name change seems to me, pretty much symptomatic of the problems with the project as a whole.