R C-R

Affinity Designer only has a Vector Crop Tool. Not only is it non-destructive (so it does not remove any image data), in effect it just applies a vector rectangle mask to the selected layer(s). To 'uncrop' just delete the mask or make it invisible in the Layers panel.

I have no idea why this (seems to?) work better, but instead of using the Perspective Tool, try the Live Perspective filter (not the regular, destructive Perspective filter). Make sure the layer order looks like this, with the live filter below the mask:

Scale & rotate of selected nodes is a feature of recent Mac customer betas (it is done via the Transform panel), so it is very high on the list.

Is there some more wisdom you might want to share with us? Seems like as good a place as any to post this:

Adding very slightly to what @Callum said, showing/hiding all the UI elements appears on the View menu as the last item, named "Toggle UI." When set to the default keyboard shortcut, the ⇥ symbol appears next to it, the Mac symbol for the tab key.

See my sig below for the specs of my iMac -- older & slower than yours, same 8 GB memory. Affinity Photo performs fine for my purposes -- a few inpainting chores & opening large RAW files takes longer than I would like but other than that nothing to complain about.

The Alignment functions only apply to shapes, not to their individual nodes (what you are calling points). So for example, it won't matter if you convert rectangles to curves & select only some of their nodes or leave them as rectangles -- either way, if you click on "Space Horizontally," the selected shapes, not just their selected nodes, will be spaced horizontally, based on the extent of their bounding boxes.

How's this for a PITA? My first "personal computer" was a Commodore VIC 20, bought while I was traveling & staying at a budget motel in a small town. The only programs available for it at the time were ones published in magazines that users typed in. The store had several of those but the cassette based storage "drive" was on backorder, so I typed in my first BASIC game (which took hours) & left the VIC powered up when I left my room for dinner so I could play it when I got back. Unfortunately, I did not notice that the only available AC outlet was powered by a wall switch that controlled the room's floor lamp. As you have probably guessed, I turned off the light when I left, wiping out all my typing so I had to do it all over again. That was bad enough but the story doesn't end there: once I figured out about the switch, the next morning I taped a note over it for the maid, briefly explaining why the switch should be left on. For whatever reason, that was ignored so when I got back from breakfast I had to type the program in yet another time! I got the light switch thing sorted out with the maids (I think there were death threats involved) but with no way to save anything, I still had to type in the other games I wanted to play, wiping out the prior one. The day before I left town, the store finally got the cassette drive, so for the rest of my trip I could save my programs to tape, but it still took forever to save or load them.

I would never call Linux a toy, but it has a long way to go before it becomes a mainstream OS with one dominate distribution that 'out of he box' is as fully configured for graphics design work as Windows or the Mac OS. It is the near infinite ways it can be configured that appeals to enthusiasts, but perhaps ironically that is the same thing that keeps it from becoming mainstream.

What kind of image do you have? Is it a bitmap (raster) image file or a vector format file of some type or what?

What is "Ideal"?

Is it cheating or a user-driven form of viral marketing? As in, how many users of just one of the apps will get tired of the inefficient workaround of copying, pasting, & editing these 'cheats' into their own designs & decide it is worth it to them to buy the other app?

It isn't exactly "plucked out of thin air." Among other things, it includes adjustments for Apple's cost of doing business around the world which, because of its physical presence in so many countries, is considerably different from most other companies. Physical presence is a significant factor because it means Apple must comply with local laws concerning employment & benefits, rental & code compliance, taxes & reporting, etc. It also includes costs associated with economies of scale -- in markets where sales volumes are high, the per sale costs are lower & conversely where volumes are low the per sale costs are higher. That said, I don't know if Serif's policy of pricing Windows app prices, which of course are sold from its own store, the same as the Mac apps is the best way to go.

At least on Macs, there is a "Synchronize tools between documents" Tools preference. When this is enabled, the current selection tool Add/New/Subtract/Intersect setting remains sticky when you switch between two open documents; otherwise they are independent of each other. I am not quite sure how this works when this pref is enabled -- sometimes both open documents retain the same setting but other times not.

Great tip but at least on my Mac the shortcut is in the Layer rather than File keyboard shortcuts section.

I doubt Serif has any interest in doing that. But it remains true that if you want to use any later version of Affinity Photo, including all of the many feature that have been added since v1.4.3, you still will need to buy your own license for it. Also, I can't remember if the file format changed between v1.4.3 & v1.5, but we know that it does for v1.6 (because the customer betas include that), so if you do not buy a license you won't be able to open most Affinity files posted here or elsewhere that are using a newer format. That applies to both Affinity Photo & Affinity Designer files -- they share a common native file format so either app can open documents created in the other one, as long as they use the same version of the format.

Almost all software licenses include terms & conditions for their use. If the license stipulates that it is non-transferable, it means exactly that -- the license cannot be transferred to anybody else without violating its terms & conditions, period. Typically, such licenses include a clause stimulating that if the T&C are violated in any way, the license is automatically revoked. They also generally include a clause that requires agreeing with all the T&C to use the license. Basically, this means the original owner was never granted any rights to sell the new owner his or her license to begin with, & if the new owner uses the software then neither party has a valid license. Technically, using unlicensed software is piracy but the legal issues & potential liabilities vary according to whatever laws the buyer and/or seller are subject to.

Apple provides a support article explaining what owners should do before selling or giving away their Mac. Step 7 is Reformat your hard drive and reinstall macOS, which not only removes all software besides whatever comes preinstalled with the OS, it also installs a fresh copy of the OS. This removes anything the original owner might have done that the new owner might not be aware of, including system level preferences, hacks, & most importantly any malware or spyware that might have been installed by accident or on purpose. So if there are any indications the former owner did not do the reformat & reinstall, it is an extremely good idea for the new owner to do this.

For both, the zoom level determines the image display size. In the Color Efex Pro 4 window, you can set the zoom level to various fixed percentages using the popup in the upper right corner of its window. Additionally, the side-by-side preview mode will change the display size in the plugin window. Different NIK plugins have different zoom & preview options but from what I can tell, they are all based on the plugin window size, so for example for Color Efex Pro 4, "100%" zoom is equivalent to Affinity Photo's "Zoom to Fit" setting.

Anyone who owns Affinity Designer can create text on a path. But because the file format is the same for both apps, & the .afphoto & .afdesign extensions only determine the default app that opens when you double-click the file, even if @dutchshader had saved the file with the .afdesign extension, anyone could still open it in Affinity Photo. The only difference is you can't create text on a path in Affinity Photo so if you don't own Affinity Designer, nothing prevents you from making do with copying & pasting from files like that one except the inconvenience & inefficient workflow that involves.

Thanks for that link. Not that I need it, but apparently LaunchBox is available for download or purchase at http://www.alphaplugins.com/products/products.php?menu=get_prod_id&p_menustate=&prod_id=19.

For Macs, the green 'traffic light' button maximizes the NIK window to the full screen size, but that does not mean the image in that window will have the same size as the image in the AP window. The NIK plugins have their own zoom controls. I can't duplicate that on my iMac but from what I understand, it may have something to do with the plugins not always using the same color profile as the Affinity Photo window does.

That is already possible, if not obvious or always as straightforward as it might be. To do this, select the cropped image layer & from the Layer menu, select "Rasterize..." However, because cropping applies to the entire document but rasterizing only applies to a selected layer, if the document has multiple layers & more than one includes an area outside the crop, you will have to do this for each of those layers individually. Alternately, you can use the Document menu "Flatten" item to discard everything outside the crop in one step, but that also 'flattens' everything into one layer.