My initial response was to agree with Penginisto, but then I began to disagree (in part).

I am glad I waited before responding.

It boils down to this (at least for me). With POSER the application, there is a ease of use that, Joe or Jane Noobie (Hiya folks!) can click to load up a model, click for a MAT, click for a Set/Prop/Lights and click for a render and be very proud of that. Heck, DAZ|Studio is free and so are base Mike/Vicky and Aiko3.

The same application can be used by those who have some training in some other artistic medium and find that same ease of use to quickly get to point B or C faster than if they did it the "old-fashioned" way.

Back in the day (when the ponies were pink, everyone knew your name and sharing was acutally caring [and encouraged]) the Poser Community was small. So the bar would be raised every so often. Folks were encouraged to try and raise the bar for themselves. As Penuinisto noted the shift occoured 2002-2003 when the great wave of Commercialism struck. It was a good time to be had for sure (for some). Loads of new users to Poser were coming in and if you could make a buck, no prob. But the sense of a small community was somewhat lost. We now have these neighborhoods in PoserVille. The controversy of the polling for Best/Top 20 artists where now your friends come in a go "W00T! AWESOME RENDER" only because you did the same for them. The community fractured.  Note I am not blaming those who were able to go pro. As communities grow and change so do their identies.

With the rise of the many packages, you find that its easier to use than to tweak. The cream of the artists products have risen to the top, alas, there are too few of these and with this large base of users, those are the sets/packages/clothing models that are going to be used. Unless you can make a texture pack (or learned how to putz around in the Mateials Room) to change colors so your canned pose of Character X wearing popular Clothing Y doesn't quite look the same as the others ("Chartruese?? Where the heck did you get Chartruese from? That's Clothing Y?? It looks so different! In Chartruese!")

The learning curve (not so much the expense curve with Wings/Blender/$1.99 Hexagon  et al.,) is what will hold some back. Some will take the plunge.

Is the future financial reward (I wont be able to get that Porsche but, I can buy so-and-so's stuff 'til I can do it on my own!") the reason why they will jump in the pool?

Is it the ability to "get propX made because, noone has the TIME to do it for me, and it will be expensive to have commisioned"? the reason?

Is it ego? "I just know that I can get my next render to look as good as so-and-so's. Lemme examine how they did that?" (Seems like back in the day of the pink poines you could ask and actually find out how it was done!)

There are some who due to time, or just contentment be willing to point, click and render!

Did you all see the November issue of 2DArtist? Check out pages 56-57 starting on p56 under the subhead References. 

Egad! This featured artist uses Daz|Studio as a reference tool! Note the reasons for possibly doing this!!!

So dlfurman. All of that typing for what? 
Understand this: The Poser landscape is now vast and there are going to be ALL KINDS OF USERS using this program. There are going to be folks who are going to step up their game. There are going to be follks who are content where they are. There are going to folks in between. We have to just deal with it. And if you personally decide that you want to move to a new PoserVille neighborhood, power and ability to ya!  Just as in the non-electronic artistic media, the debate over what is art has raged it will too, rage here. You may have to invest a little more $$$ to get that help that used to be available free, you may have to check out those free tutorials and play with them beyond what is given. But you here to stay.

Welcome to PoserVille!

PS: Maybe we should go and tell that guy who spend $K's on a high end 3D package learning to do a 3d still life that they suck and should try non-organic forms instead.

Nah!  I have "Art" to do ! ;)

"Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks more of what he intends to say than that of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak." - Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Intel Core i7 920, 24GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1050 4GB video, 6TB HDD space
Poser 12: Inches (Poser(PC) user since 1 and the floppies/manual to prove it!)