I think a big part of why people seem to really like the film simulations in the Fuji cameras is because you can create or copy other people settings, “recipes”, and you get a nice live preview right on the LCD screen as you are shooting. It gives you a much closer visualization of your desired final product right on the back of the camera as you are shooting.
RawTherapee has film simulations built-in
Have you used them? If so, how do you like them?
I have no experience with RawTherapee but I’m someone that doesn’t like spending a ton of time editing photos.
Yes, I’ve used them a lot. You have to download them separately, but it’s just a zip file that you extract and then tell rawtherapee where it is. It has many films; I really liked Portra 400 for portraits.
I think you can also get the Fuji film LUTs, so if you shoot raw you can later pick whichever film simulation you like.
For live preview I usually set minimum contrast and saturation, to get wider dynamic range (on the preview)