Export is "Save to a different file as a potentially different format", so it is the same action. Unless you use functionality that the format you are trying to save to doesn't support, then you can resume your work. If you try to use functionality that the target format doesn't support, GIMP could simply tell you so, like what many other programs that support multiple save file formats already do.

So no, the developers do not know better than $GENERIC_USER, at least not this particular $GENERIC_USER.

- Save is "save my (editable) session"

- Export is "save the output of my work to a file (which may or may not be import-able afterward)"

So yes, you are right that both of them essentially translate to "save", but they're very different types of saving with different expectations.

The distinction here is that the primary "Save" should be reversible, and should never involve data loss. The 2.6 workflow was actually "dangerous" for this reason.

Please read the message you respond to. I already wrote:

> Unless you use functionality that the format you are trying to save to doesn't support, then you can resume your work. If you try to use functionality that the target format doesn't support, GIMP could simply tell you so, like what many other programs that support multiple save file formats already do.

There is nothing dangerous about the "2.6" workflow (which is also shared by many other programs) and what you describe is really trying to come up with nitpicky and arbitrary distinctions between saving and exporting to justify their unnecessary separation.