It depends on what you want from the software you buy. I only use Vues rendering engine for poser scenes - nothing else. To get the best out of it you need phyton scripts and that only comes with the Infinite versions. So yes, that's a high price to pay.
If only E-on would make a poser only rendering program without all the ecosystems and other things they put in them that makes them so expensive, I would have jumped on it a long time ago.