No probably about it.
Mechanical watches lose 10-15 secs per day which declines as they get older or aren’t serviced, a $40 Casio might miss 30 secs per month, never needs servicing other than a battery change.
Mechanical watches are no longer utility items, they are fashion items that happen to tell time.
From someone with a passing interest, Krita seems on a similar trajectory to Blender - gathering momentum and going from strength to strength, whereas Gimp seems rather stuck.
Ideally you need a double-blind checking mechanism definitionally impervious to social engineering.
That may be possible in larger projects but I doubt you can do much in where you have very few maintainers.
I bet the lesson here for future attackers is: do not affect start-up time.
From what I read it was this observation that led him to investigate the cause. But this is the first time I read that he’s employed by Microsoft.
I was scanning it for the “we’ve been played for ABSOLUTE FOOLS” part.
…the itch wasn’t scratched. :(