As the OP, what I meant by "Non Destructive Editing' is the ability to go back and adjust mask/filters etc independently of each other and without permanently a

As the OP, what I meant by "Non Destructive Editing' is the ability to go back and adjust mask/filters etc independently of each other and without permanently altering the original image. Photoshop does this with 'Adjustment Layers' which sit on top of the original image and apply things such as masks, colour adjustments, filters, etc to it. Over-cooked one of your previous tweaks? Just open the corresponding adjustment layer and change the settings. Wish you hadn't applied that filter 10 operations ago? Just switch off or delete that adjustment layer Removed a bit of someone's ear while deleting the background? Just paint it back in on the mask layer And if you really want to start over again, just delete all the adjustment layers and you're back to square one. The original image is untouched. Someone disdainfully said I'd picked an "arbitrary feature" to complain about. For a professional designer [which I am] NDE is not just a "nice to have" feature, it's an essential one. Hence why Gimp will never be taken seriously by design professionals —no matter how many pointless icon themes it comes with.