all of those aspects you mentioned are marketing.  tobacco unmarketed was none of those things.  

you talk like all these things are inherent properties instead of social and cultural constructs largely built by companies needing to sell a product.

people marketed rocks as pets.  twice in the last century.

and it would only work if merchants worked together (for whatever reason, there's no incentive to now), not "someone".  as i've said from the beginning, if the 20 or 40 most popular merchants support a figure, it will do well.  but it would take that many of the most popular, not one or two lone merchants.  so please don't bring up the lone merchant scenario yet again.  i can't see anyone or any circumstance inciting such universal support, but i wouldn't say it's impossible.

me, i have no idea what will happen in the future so i wouldn't bet.  maybe eF will be acquired and poser will be dicontinued altogether.  maybe some programmers we don't even know about will revolutionize 3d character creation, posing and rigging.  maybe one of the big players in 3d will see this as an untapped market, move in and take over.  a year might be a safe bet, but i wouldn't go further than that.

and just to say, i'm stopping now (or mean to).  before i was biding time, but now i'm just not getting stuff done. 

it was fun disagreeing entirely with you.  i wish you well.