Without question, shade does have an unfriendly interface and it is odd that, from what we are used to in this hemisphere, there are so few poly tools. Certainly, you want standard to make this really useful but even then, you need to want to work in splines. Keep in mind that FeiFei was made with Shade, as is a large amount of Japanese stuff for Poser. It is a pretty powerful ap if you can used to the different way of working. I'm learning Hexagon and Silo at the moment but I still have a place for Shade and will seriously consider getting version 8. I can't begin to compare it with the software you mention using. I can't afford them - which is relevant, because for the price, particularly if you have Poser, you do get a lot for your money, even if you do have to work to use it.