It may not be in many studio's but it is a very capable alternative to photoshop, especially for hobbyists etc like I said. Not everyone needs photoshop or ALL it's tools, and most of us will agree that photoshop could do with being cheaper. You can easily switch over from paintshop pro as most of the icons etc are the same anyways.
Would you honestly suggest to someone who wants to do photoshop type tasks a few times a month to buy photoshop, I wouldn't. First I'd suggest gimp or paint.net, then it would pixelmator or paintshop pro. I've never been keen on elements versions from adobe.