I have used both Illustrator and CorelDRAW, Photoshop and PhotoPaint for years. Though Illustrator can do many of the thing CorelDRAW can, the strength of CorelDRAW is in user Automation, scripting, which my macros, are frequently shared or sold at nomimal fees to extend the function of CorelDRAW.
The Bezier tool is great at drawing what you need to get at with the least amount of correction, even over Xara, which for Mac users who have never tested what that program can do, really should give it a spin.
What I like best about the CorelDRAW graphics suite is that it truly gives you a competitive edge in pricing as you do not have to buy the more expensive software as when you upgrade in the Adobe Suites, the price difference is huge. DRAW offers to a graphic artist a complete tool.
Many do not understand the strength of PhotoPaint. Mac users for years repeat the Adobe montra to their economic slavery, that CorelDRAW is lame and year after year, Illustrator incorporates features which DRAW has had for 20 years. It is interactive and you draw outside of going into a dialogue box. An artist using a program can make any program look good. It is the artist using the program which brings inspiration to life. It does not come bundled in the Adobe Suite no matter how high the price tags get. But if you believe the hype, you simply won't learn what you are missing and think that you can compare Inkscape to CorelDRAW and think you can make a living with it. If the program you use wastes your time, then where are you? Customers don't want to be hit up with unreasonable fees.
Draw has the ability to do books of 100 pages, not Illustrator, go buy InDesign too. Illustrator has wonderful features for those who can afford going from one program to another, though the delay time in doing so makes and keeps users of CorelDRAW still using it like me on Windows XP despite frowns. What I can't do in DRAW, I do in Xara which comes with great compression for .pdfs so there is little reason to spend further to get Adobe Acrobat Professional. Now there is a form creator on line to make fillable forms which was once the province of Acrobat and do it for free.
.Pdf has leveled many playing fields in publication, and on the web.
As far as manipulation of fonts and what you can do with nodes of type, the creative possibilities are limited by your imagination only in CorelDRAW. Inkscape cannot touch anywhere near the sophistication of either DRAW or Xara. DRAW is very CAD-like if you choose to use those features. Sadly accuracy is not taught almost anywhere. A course in basic drafting on a computer is a lifelong benefit in understanding how to make things work. A second which is not being taught is typography and printable point-sizes.
