saying that in a poser forum is ... odd.  maybe even ironic.  i mean, after all there are all those people out there too, why do we need digital ones?

yes, there is an actual sky out there (i enjoy it often, being as it's particularly interesting where i live), but it doesn't always conveniently look just the right way for our scenes.  and not everyone is a decent photographer, and has a huge collection of sky images so one can whip out just the right one.  i have a pretty big collection, but it's by no means comprehensive.

besides which, some people like the challenge of procedural shading.

i don't even get what's supposed to be sad about it.