In many ways, this thread boils down to an Eden vs Utopia point of view -- those who see an idyllic past that has been lost due to "sin" vs. those who see the current events as building toward a better tomorrow.

Let's see, it's an odd numbered day, so I'm inclined toward Utopia.

Consider this:
I can't comment on the "old days", since I started with Poser 4. But I have been making purchases at DAZ, RDNA, RMP, Poserpros, etc for about a year, and I can say this: if it wasn't for these commercial sites, I would have lost interest in this program about two months after I purchased it. Poser4's file management is restrictive, its resource management is worse, I don't care for the interface. But you know what? Lots of things sold at DAZ, RDNA, RMP, etc. are just plain cool, so I tolerate this odd program.

So, from my point of view, this marketplace of Poser content (third party characters, props, textures, etc) sustains the Poser user base and is the primary reason why the program still exists. In fact, I'd say this marketplace is more robust than its software engine -- in theory, if DAZ Studio was meant as a Poser replacement program (from what I understand, it's not), then Poser could go the way of the platypus while its content marketplace remain intact. That's not typical in other software niches -- for instance, most game add-ons depend on the viability of the original game engine. Maybe Adobe Photoshop plug-ins would survive if Photoshop disappeared, but I digress.

Now, is the marketplace itself out of gas? You know, on even numbered days, that thought has crossed my mind. But today, I think, naw, something's cool coming out tomorrow ...