"If DAZ are gonna kit out Bryce6 with a plugin renderer, why on earth did they put so much time and effort into improving the current renderer in what is just a "point" upgrade, only to ditch the entire renderer in the next release?" Um, why does it have to be ditched? Take a look at Cinema and its basic renderer, which is pretty fine except for missing the caustics, HDRI, GI and a couple of other higher-end features. All of them you can find in Advanced Render module. And you will be able (or you are able - not certain and too tired to look) to use Maxwell. Apropos Maxwell, it appears to be one renderer slower than Bryce. :-/

-- erlik