Yes, Bryce can easily be considered a beginner 3D software. It´s cheap and easy to learn and use. Unfortunatly these two things allow people to dismiss it easily, and imo the biggest problem is that most people never bother exploring the program thoroughly. 
They see a few shiny spheres images, a few nviatwas scenes, perhaps play with the software for a few weeks, create a few crappy drag&drop scenes, and believe they know its full potential.
Those of us that have used Bryce for a little longer however, know that they haven´t even scratched its surface.

To a certain extent, you can match the quality with the best apps out there, but it would probably never work as an industry app.
Even so, getting a nice job in the industry with nothing but Bryce images in the portfolio is not at all an impossibility. From my experience, most of the big people (the employers and heads of the studios), will not dismiss good work because it´s made with Bryce. In fact, usually they get that much more impressed, because they know that if you can pull of great stuff with a "beginner" 3D app, you can do wonders with something more advanced.

These days i mainly use C4D, but Bryce is still an irreplaceable part of my toolbox.

Rudolf Herczog
Digital Artist
www.rochr.com