As an occasional user of GIMP, yes it does not quite have the final level of UX polish.

For example, moving a text layer (with 'pick layer') requires the cursor to be over the painted part of the glyphs to move that layer, if you miss then the background is moved instead. All that is required is a picking region around the glyphs and it would be fine.

▲ somat a day ago | parent [-]

Not sure if this hurts or help the case for the gimp but that behavior is a tool option for the move command. It also temporarily toggles with shift.

    pick a layer or guide
    move the selected layers

	▲	somewhereoutth 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Right, so I tend to have to 'move the selected layers' when moving text, but then I'm bouncing around the layers in the layers tab instead of picking whats in front of me. Meanwhile the 'align and distribute' tool does the right thing when picking text layers - so the solution is there, just not everywhere!