Age has authenticated encryption so it is slightly more convenient for stuff like encrypting backups that you think might undergo some sort of known plain text attack. To prevent that with gpg you have to also sign the backup.
This recent security thing makes it seem that GPG has also gained authenticated encryption. Dunno how I feel about that. OpenPGP stuff gets its security and reliability from simplicity. Adding stuff takes away from that. This security thing kind of supports that.
Yeah, MDC was added as something better than nothing for unsigned messages/files. It has ended up being remarkably robust over the years, considering. The biggest deal is that you can entirely remove it. As a result stuff these days tends to consider a missing MDC as an invalid MDC.
This recent security thing makes it seem that GPG has also gained authenticated encryption. Dunno how I feel about that. OpenPGP stuff gets its security and reliability from simplicity. Adding stuff takes away from that. This security thing kind of supports that.