Well, Poser doesn't have to be "bought mesh, bought pose, bought textures freebie lights, bought backdrop, bought texture brushes". Most likely it will be bought mesh (though individually deformed), and quite possibly bought textures (possibly modified). It is possible to treat Poser as paint-by-numbers, but you don't have to. The comparison to make is with collage; the collagist takes all sorts of ready-made materials and combines them to make a completely original image. I would say that my images that combine found props, found textures, found/bought figures into something completely new, can be thought of as 3D collages.