Hey Skeet 
I like the fac that you go all out in your post an actually include information etc that's cool I appreciate that.  I must say though even though I am playing with a kiddish program sometimes it takes baby steps to work up to the "Big Boys" as a 15 year veteran miniature painter I can only imagine how satisfying it would be to rend out one of those beautiful poser models.  My goals is though not to just follow the norm of other stuff I have seen but actually make something different and to the very best of ability!  While I agree as well with the whole Sims analogy I think alot of it is because people haven't really took the time and effort into some of their iclone creations   I've only been oworking with my models 2 days and already they look much better than the ones you are probably accustomed to seeing. Poser seems alot like playing with paper dolls in 3d so many accessories maybe someday when I grow up I can play with paper dolls too. BTW what program do they use to do things like MOnsters INC.  I remeber seeing Sully (teh big blue guy) for the first time and I was liek Man thats what I wanna do someday.