"It is not in the interests of either CL or DAZ to try and corner the market, so to speak, and I don't expect either of them will do so -- there is too much to lose, and not enough to gain."

I disagree. I think even if they keep D|S free there is much for Daz to feel they gain by trying to lock in. The Poser content market LOOKS big, but it is fundamentally small. We are a bunch of fish having fun in a very, very small pond. Given that, it is clear that Daz's fundamental unwillingness to support Poser5 despite the obvious marketing opportunities is only the beginning of a partisan play to split the market.

Scenario: Daz releases figures that work in Poser and D|S but rely on the (yet unfulfilled) promise of vertex weighting. Now consider that the locked in format and control of the code may allow them to make sure that no one else can do as good a job as they can with their figures.

If Daz were to keep D|S free in that circumstance and managed to make D|S even remotely usable they might believe that they would corner the market completely. Your choices would be to buy Poser and the Daz figures and have it look bad or buy the Poser figures and just use D|S.

Instantly, a huge portion of people would switch to D|S - a format that now Daz controlled and could maybe make being a broker a requirement for access to the ability to use the advanced features as a merchant.

Think about it. They might be wrong, but it's not a bad play, and there is a LOT to gain.

"Will partisanship play a role in the future of our communities? Likely. Should it? Only to the extent that it fosters good, friendly competition."

All competition is ultimately good, but this one stopped being friendly a long time ago :)

"but they are, ultimately, little more than a bunch of poserholics themselves who've banded together to bring cool stuff out"

They are, ultimately, a corporation. I doubt the people who make the financial decisions these days are poserholics at all. This is a company with financial issues to deal with, payroll to meet and families depending on them... they will do what will make them the most money.

"As well as better previews. I'm surprized sometimes when I render something and my lighting looks very different from my preview!"

The better the render engine gets, the more divergent previews and final renders will look... this is true no matter how high end the software. For instance in Max and Maya the previews will never show you how this is going to look in Mental Ray :)