I've always wondered whether the huge amount of kids with it free actually boosts the overall photoshop is best attitude as they will have learned how to use it long before needing to use it in any real business application and keeps it as the default answer to anybody that asks what software they should be using.

that is a theory, yes.

i like it

Oh I'm sure that factors into it, but as a designer, I have used Paint Shop Pro, Macromedia Fireworks, Corel Photo Magic, and even GIMP. While each one has a different learning curve, none of the other ones did quite the job that Photoshop did/does.

Don't get me wrong, many of the other offerings are very decent softwares, and some people get to be very proficient at them (Remember that Amputate Your Head used to use Fireworks in the early days of his design career ..), they still do not offer the total pixel manipulation solution that Photoshop does!