"...it's actually the other fancy aspects of the package (like lighting) that makes the final product such an overall winner."

I agree totally.

I didn't buy Poser5 for precisely the reason Sean mentions above - it didn't offer me anything I needed beyond Poser4. Some new bits were interesting (face room, dynamic cloth), but these (for me) could only be rendered within Poser5 - which still just couldn't render very well.

But Poser6 renders well enough (potentially) to the point that I won't need another render program except for backgrounds. So now all those interesting bits become very useful indeed.

I've not had much chance to play yet, but I have to say that I'm very impressed with Poser6.