Software recommendations from this century?

Background:  My wife and I have frequented the site for a decade or more, (usually just reading and learning) but have been away from it for a while - got busy with other things.  We've got an assortment of mainly "prosumer" cameras, but our go-to camera is our T3i, with just a few solid lenses.  We do a little of everything:  nature stuff, weddings for friends, high school and college sports, etc.

Had to get a new computer, which is making us ponder updating our software from the stone ages.  We've been using Photoshop Elements 2 (I know) with Richard Lynch's "Power Tools" - remember those?  And, my wife has actually had pretty good success with Canon's DPP software.

Strange as it sounds, what has kept us from upgrading has been, 1) Not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on full Photoshop, which we would not quite use enough to stay fluent with it, and 2) Not wanting to loose the "Curves" feature that the Power Tools bring to Elements 2.  It seems like Curves is used less now than in the past, but it has still been a very valuable tool to us.  I know that the full Photoshop has it, but as I said, we can often go a couple of months between doing serious photo editing, and that can just be frustrating.

I know Lighthouse has become a major component now, but am wondering if that is going to be a bit too complex, like Photoshop.  Also, once again, I think it means that we lose Curves.

We'd welcome any input/suggestions.  As we catch up, it sounds like we might need to make the jump to Lighthouse.  However, these forums have always been a huge help for us.

Thanks for reading all this, and any input you give.

Al