[rawr]

Many roads lead to Rome

Of course. I find it useful to have tools around to solve particular problems or give me other processing options. I use LR normally, but keep C1 and DxO on the computer too.

[infoomatic]

For free options, I'd suggest Darktable.

I would suggest darktable in any way, it's great software. Additionally, it's free, open source and respects your privacy. No more to say.

[jbinpg]

And there is a recently developed lua plugin to send an image to gimp and dump the end result back into darktable should you so wish. A bit rough around the edges now but suspect it will be improved. This could be the best way forward for adding out of scope features to darktable.