My 2 cents, FWIW..

Preferred Modeler: SketchUp Pro -- it now even does Sub-D work with the right plugins. I'm currently doing some modeling and design in it for a west coast media client and they can't get over how fast models are poking out. The OBJ exporter in SU Pro works great, even with textures applied in SU.

Some times I jump from SU to Lightwave to do things only LW can do...like 'JITTER' vertices to create distressed geometry. I learned LW years ago and still use a 5.5 version of Modeler which works just fine for my needs (even though I have V9).

I like UV Mapper Pro for mapping, and of course Pshop for texturing. Haven't really gotten into GeoControl yet...probably will someday-- looks like a cool app.

I've played around with ZBrush-- too time consuming. You end up in 'tweak-hell' really quick. I own both Modo and Silo3D, but neither is easy enough to use on an infrequent basis. If I were to spend all day in an app every day....I suppose Modo would be my choice for modeling. But as it is, SketchUp works great and is very easy to learn and be productive with--not to mention it's free.

Vue-Infinite is by far my fave-- as Dave mentions, it's just easy to use for newcomers. That said, there's a whole lot of power and untapped resources in the renderer and function editor. I think we're all still learning new ways of using them-- as Wabe's new 'plant effects' show!

I've already said my piece about TG2 in another thread-- needless to say, it's not near what Vue is, though it does have some nice fractal routines. I don't think you can really say it's in real commercial competition with Vue. I'm sure e-on doesn't think so. I expect they are more worried about Carrara than they are about TG2.