I just categorically disagree that you can conclude anything about GIMP on this basis. I will strongly agree with anyone who says that GIMP is missing features and that it's subpar for graphic designer work. But I've used GIMP for over 15 years now and I have the exact same experience as you when I try to do anything in Photoshop. I simply can't find my way around Photoshop's interface at all. Does that mean that Photoshop's interface is terrible? No. It means I'm not used to it.

The crop tool is literally one click away in the GIMP interface, by the way, and once you activate it, it works like it does in any other program.

Just to give you a feedback from a new (neutral) user who had no experience of either image editing concepts and tricks; OR an image editing tool like Photoshop or GIMP. I could at least navigate my way through in Photoshop but never in GIMP in only a handful of times I have used both of these software in my life. GIMP was always the software that I wanted to love, but every time I uninstalled it after a few failed attempts.

I'm in the same boat, love gimp and use it all the time. Like any other non trivial software, it takes a bit of learning but it's funny to see a lot of vocal people on HN complaining how UI are now some dumb down and see in the case of gimp the wish to make it simpler, you can't please everyone

For me, it was just that I have been using Photoshop for years, and GIMP for 3 times max. I took the time once, and clicked through all of the menus, and settings, taking at least some seconds to read what they do. I think it took around two hours. After that, working with was much smoother. And now, when I sit back to Photoshop, I appreciate the adjustment layers and text effects, but I'm similarly confused about the UI as I was back then with GIMP. It really is just a matter of familiarity.