When you are talking about Applications that can cost in the thousands of dollars, you better be making your money back through work. Just like buying a MacPro $3000+ dollars. These type of purchases are made as "investments". I am sure their are serious hobbits with deep pockets that could probably afford this, but the majority of people stick with much more obtainable solutions.

Carrara is reaching the realm of semi professional, and it sure can take advantage of a big hardware purchase, but like others state, it's bread and butter is still the hobbits market. The average person that wants very good results at a reasonable price. Yet, developers have to entice people to upgrade, thats why you see it get more features. But I am with Miss Nancy on this one. Everybody is better served by keeping it as simple to use as possible.

In the end it's not the software that makes the art, its the person driving the software. Someone with talent can do very good with even old featureless software. Believe me Carrara can do very impressive art, in the right hands, and you can see some pretty crummy things done with Maya or Cinema4D. Particularly for still images. As far as animation, then technology starts to be more of an issue, but you still need to know what you are doing.