Never used iPhoto for much, scarred me away with its early loss of Libraries and absolutely no control over where I wanted them to be, anyway! Never thought of it as an editor and the early versions were not photo managers, they just did everything behind your back!
Bought Aperture a few years ago when Apple had a sale on it. Didn't know how much better Lightroom was! Fortunately, LR is still available without their stupid subscription model, at least for now!
Who knows how long that will last?!
LR even has an "Organizer" app along with the editor. The nice thing about LR is that you can store your images any way and anywhere you want, but it saves your edits in (basically XML) files and applies them when you view, export, or print. This way, you don't end up with multiple copies/versions of huge files; the original is never actually touched. I think even iPhoto switched to this method.
Even though I have a great camera now, much of my editing is for manipulating/adding layers, so I still use Photoshop Elements (could never justify the full version of PS). I now have v.11, but 13 is the latest one. Adobe used Elements (6 or 7?) to create the new GUI for that app, so much of the code is actually
in PSE! However, the only way to access many functions is through PS Actions. Since those usually cost real money, I just stick with the basics. Lightroom gives me more control if I'm just dealing with self-composed images.
For
free pixel editing, there is still <
GraphicConverter>, but the learning curve grows steeper with each new, more powerful release.
Good luck,
Edouard