FWIW I refuse to use Photoshop and I have had no problem incorporating QTR into my workflow for making digital negatives without PS.
For preparing the JPG for printing, I use Affinity Photo. It works much like PS -- 90 percent of the commands are the same -- but it costs $40 (on sale now). So if you know the PS environment but want to ditch the Adobe subscription, here's your path forward.
I export 16-bit TIFFs from Affinity for making the negatives and print them through the QTR Print Tool. Easy.
For making the QTR curves, I use a program by Richard Boutwell called QuickCurve-DN. You (1) run a test strip with your light and chemistry to find how long it takes to get the densest black; (2) print a step chart at that exposure to determine how much ink it takes to block light entirely; (3) plug that number into QuickCurve and have it generate a start curve; (4) print a step chart with your workflow using that start curve; and (5) read the light values off that chart and plug them back into QuickCurve, which then linearizes the start curve based on the step chart readings. Usually, the revised curve is in the ballpark, but you can relinearize using the same workflow if need be.
The only obscure part of this process is reading the light values off the step chart. But here again, there are easy solutions. There is a $60 colorimeter called a Color Muse, available on Amazon, that is made for matching paints but works perfectly well for linearizing step charts. Clay Harmon has figured out how to incorporate the Color Muse into the linearization, and has even developed a 40-step chart, sized for the Color Muse, that QuickCurve can use. Here's a link to Clay's Color Muse work:
Once QuickCurve has generated your curve, you simply install it into QTR using the QTR installer. Then, when you print your TIFF through Print Tool, you call up the curve in the print setup dialog box.
I apologize for writing at such length. I spent the better part of a year learning this stuff. No one part of this workflow is difficult, so long as you have the software and a Color Muse. But it does take some trial and error to master. And as you get better handling your chemistry and paper, you will likely need to go back and relinearize your curves. And even now, having believed that I had ironed out the bugs, I will occasionally print a negative that makes me realize that my transitions in one part of the grayscale are lacking, and have to go back to refine the curve to fix the gap.
I hope this helps.