It hardly pales. In the respect that it's designed for a completely different purpose (web graphics as opposed to general graphics editing) it is miles ahead of Photoshop.

Essentially, photoshop is a bitmap program with rudimentary vector capabilities. Fireworks is a vector program with decent bitmap capabilities.

it streamlines the whole process of making and slicing web layouts and produces much more efficient coding than Imageready ever could (not that I use that feature...since I've gone CSS I only use it for the graphics themselves)

Plus its a lot better value for money..