Quote - I do find it pretty interesting that it seems okay to buy meshes for Maya and render with those models (do NOT try to tell me that every Maya user models every mesh in their scenes themselves because that's simply not true) and with bought / freebie textures... and say it's "Professional" but if I do the same thing in Poser - it's not.

I can turn out a pretty basic Maya render and make it look half way decent. (Well I could, but I don't have the student version installed anymore). I could do the same thing with Lightwave or 3DMax.
And if I said it was done in Max, no one would quibble about it, regardless where the model came from.

Not entirely true.  Try posting a Max or Maya-rendered stock Turbosquid figure that is highly recognizable, like Masha or whatever, on CGTalk.  Then post the wires for it, etc., and don't mention you used a stock figure, as if you did everything yourself.  After the 3rd page or so of "good job man" replies, SOMEONE with a good eye will out you, and you'll be roasted for not mentioning you used a stock figure.

Point being,  many hi-end users consider 3D to be a multi-faceted artistic discipline in and of itself; starting with the modeling, lighting, texturing, and finally the render (more of a technical director's forte).  Sure, if you work in a big studio you'll probably be assigned to working on a specific aspect of 3D for certain projects (depending on the strength of whatever discipline you may excel at), but most pros are very well-rounded in all the aspects of the art, and often get hired based on a demo reel that shows off their strengths first and foremost, but also shows they can do just about anything at least decently.  Sometimes studios will have someone who is excellent at modelling learn ON SITE to do texturing for a specific project.  The reason Poser is frowned upon specifically, is because it leaves out several basic elements of the overall 3D experience for the user, in order to simplify the process of creating a render.  That's not necessarily a bad thing for the casual user, but if you're a person who's into 3D as it's own kind of artform, or as a serious business, then you might consider Poser a way to "cut corners", and have contempt for it.

You'll find this kind of thing in a lot of skill-oriented disciplines too...  like masonry, carpentry, etc.  I know a certain housing development where you can't buy land if you're going to put a modular home on it, because it's an area reserved for high-priced "stick-built" homes only (homes that are built "on site" from the foundation up).  I know some of the people who live there feel a modular home will depreciate their property value, among other reasons.  This despite the fact that today's modular (not mobile, mind you) homes can be just as fantastic looking and "up to code" as any home that's built from the ground up.

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.