I agree that they are effective programs for getting work done. There are some drawbacks in a professional setting though, the biggest being the data scraping that has been introduced. It’s hard to explain to clients that any licensing of their images has been violated before it has even been applied. Either Adobe are going to get away with exactly the kind of IP infringements that they are so against when it comes to their own work, or they’re lining up a buggerload of legal problems for themselves further down the line.
Then there’s the price-gouging that they’ve gotten into with their online subscription model and instability on some hardware.
How to trust them?
For people starting a new business in a creative industry I don’t think Adobe is the obvious choice that it once was.