Compared Cleanup.pictures against Photoshop object removal for 2026 and the answer is less obvious than expected

The honest comparison after running both on the same test images: Cleanup.pictures wins on speed and accessibility for straightforward removals against clean backgrounds. Photoshop wins on complex removals where the background has texture, pattern or repeated detail that AI fill struggles to reconstruct consistently.

Content-aware fill in Photoshop specifically handles architectural and repeated texture backgrounds better than AI removal tools because it uses actual surrounding pixels rather than generating a plausible replacement. For product photography against simple backgrounds the AI tool is faster and good enough. For location photography with complex backgrounds the Photoshop workflow is more reliable.

The learning curve for someone coming from a purely AI background is real but the control is proportionally higher.

What is your current criteria for deciding which tool to use on a specific removal job? Where is the line between "this is a Cleanup.pictures job" and "this needs Photoshop"?