I upgraded to Poser Pro. I wish they'd have come up with a name that didn't seem so much like Poser Pro Pack. Slight improvements. On the bright side, Smith Micro actually did release something. I had my doubts.

I'm one of those people with the $12,000 programs. Okay, Vue Infinite is $700 which is almost there. I use Poser 7 for posing, IMHO only DAZ Studio is better than Poser at posing figures, and only Poser can export them easily to my favored application. I also have more than one computer: the new one and the old one, so network rendering works for me. Plus I'll agree that background rendering is valuable. Set the scene, and once you're happy start a high quality render and go on with the next project.

Poser Pro is buggy in my experience. I tried it, it was noticeably more responsive than P7. Unfortunately, when I set up a test animation with a V4.2 walking into a room, only the animated V4.2 and the room imported. With Poser 7, V4.2's clothes also imported! :-)

(If you're already happy with Poser 7, I'd suggest joining the DAZ Platinum Club and buying their Economic Stimulus Bundle for the $200 that Poser Pro would have cost. Never mind DAZ Studio, Cararra seems to be getting updated and if I didn't have Vue I'd use Cararra.)