Thanks for the info. I am bummed. I'm not the creator of the clipart originals, just processing the originals for putting online.
Was trying to get away from Photoshop, looks like I won't be able to. Somehow Photoshop lets me remove backgrounds and save as GIF's without severe degradation. Not sure how they do it, but it is a feature I have become reliant on.
Too bad, I am really liking Affinity Photo, but I have a workflow I do 4 times per year for several dozen graphics for the past 15+ years. I'm either going to get an old version to work on my Mac or suck it up and pay them a monthly fee. :(