Good UI is overrated in utility apps. Audacity, for the people who use it, use it very frequently. It's a powerful tool with a specific purpose. The initial few minutes of confusing UI are trounced by the hundreds of hours people spend in the program after they have all the UI and keyboard shortcuts memorized. Could it be better? Yes. Should it be a priority? Nah.
If you're talking about tech folks, then maybe yes, but I see a lot of popular appeal for such tools comes from ease of use. My assumption is that a lot of designers would reject a tool like GIMP / Inkscape because it appears "clunky" and rather pick paid alternatives Sketch / Photoshop instead.
