@falktx @prokoudine @GIMP
GIMP 3.0.2 (might be another version if we have urgent bugs to fix or whatever after 3.0.0) should have link layers too. I.e. linking an external image as a layer in GIMP. Link layers can be used e.g. when you want to share an image across several artworks, or if you want to edit the image in an external software. To stay in the vector world, you could load an external SVG file as a link layer, keep editing it in @inkscape and have the render update in GIMP.