>Fireworks tried to fill the gaps between PS and Illustrator, but never got traction.

I couldn't disagree more. Fireworks was a perfect blend of raster and vector editing and was killer for early 2000s web design work. It was an amazing Macromedia product that got neglected by Adobe.

If I'm in a cynical mood I sometimes think it's because an up-to-date Fireworks would have cannibalized the sales of PS/AI, but I think that gives too much credit to Adobe.

Fireworks wasn't an original Adobe product but a Macromedia one they got during the acquisition. Adobe seems to have had some massive lack of effort for those (Flash being the prime exemple).

RIP to Fireworks, it's the first tool I ever used for design.

Yet another example of Adobe purchasing their biggest competition and then shutting it down!