I think everyone knows the problem with the current system. What I think most people are forgetting is how (relatively) easy it makes rigging clothing. Currently, I would bet 95% of clothing articles out there use the EXACT SAME rig as figure they are for. Why, because it is easy. Take away the whole "region/falloff" based rigging and the ease in which merchants can create clothing plummets. Currently it is possible to create something in Wings (a free modelling application), import it into Poser and get the clothing rigged in an hour (approx, some people are alot quicker!!!). Make merchants have to paint the weights and that ends the accessibility of the market for most people (whether that is a good or a bad thing for us consumers is different to it being good/bad to CL). There ARE ways to have region/weight based rigging work and work well. Have a look at Project Messiah - it is an INCREDIBLY powerful rigging/animation tool (with a kickass renderer to boot); and more importantly - it uses region/falloff based rigging.