25+ years of GPUs from three different major companies, and I don't think I've ever upgraded the firmware on my GPU. Support is based on the API, be it D3D or Vulkan or OpenGL. As long as there's support your card will work.
6700XT is still a bit faster than the 7600, I think. Feel free to correct me on this.
Agree on the SSD, while a PCIe4 may not be needed, I'm sure there're plenty of better SSDs than the Intel for cheap at this point in time. The price drops have been pretty good across the board.
Might want to wait for the benchmark tests to come out first, if the build is for CS2. I remember CS is pretty CPU heavy, so you might want to hold off on your choice of platform first.
Edit: Also, do check with the PSU tier list, don't have to get A tier, but try something from B. A good PSU will help with the longevity of your build!
Because it's aimed at photographers who raised a huge stink in the first place (I was one of them).
You don't have to use it in the cloud too, all my camera photos are sitting in my drives, none of them have been uploaded to Adobe's servers.
PS and LR at this price is cheaper than the perpetual licenses if I upgraded every other cycle, so it's been cheaper for me. Of course there's still cheaper alternatives for PS now (Affinity Photo is really good), but since I still use LR a lot and the cost is bearable, I stay on it.
Workflow just wasn't as good, it didn't have a lot of the little features (search was definitely not as nice to use), and as a Nikon shooter back then, it never nailed the Nikon colours the way I wanted without very heavy post-processing, which was time I didn't want to spend.
No, it's still US$10 for me for both. I wonder if it's a regional thing, or Adobe are being sneaky bastards and hiding the cheaper version of the plan somewhere.