Linda From Maine wrote:
I might be mis-understanding your comment. Affinity, like PS Elements, lets you move your raw file from the raw developing section to the photo editing section without conversion. Only when you're ready to save, do you have to select a new file type (psd, afphoto, jpg and the rest).
Affinity when you click Develop in the Develop Persona and ACR when you select Open both convert the raw file at that time and send an RGB (basically a TIFF file) to the photo editing section. Each program's photo editing section requires RGB image data for further processing.