ArtPearl,
with my version of Vue you can load different interface colours, I like the pale blue but my eyes are too sensitive at times for it. :/

I LOVE Vue's UI/design!! :) 
Although I'm a Nerdy Geek Deluxe (TM) :p I am an artist, I don't like having to fight the damn UI to achieve what I want.
FrankT, you have my respect!! Zbrush and Blender make me go "tharn"!
curls up like a rabbit before their maleavolent UIs! hehe

look at the material and model libraries Vue and Bryce have, now, do the "big" apps have that YET or how long did it take them to do likewise?!

Sorry not tried 'em in years, bar Lightwave, and my goodness, how retarded to have very expensive apps and you had to select an item in your hard drive folder to see a tiny preview of it...rather than showing it to you in the damn library as a nice big icon!
(I think Cinema has had an iconic library for a long while? )

I started with Bryce, and it's soooo similar to Vue, Vue is better in most ways, not always by huge degrees but it all adds up. I'd recommend any beginner to try them before any other app, unless they were a complete tech-menu-geek :)
I've encouraged or shown them and other apps, and in college where we had 3DMAX and so on, and generally, most folk preffer Bryce and Vue, quite understandably.
You can see and create things very easily and quickly, rather than having to fight to understand the UI, first.

Vue needs a good PC to work on, 3DMAX is very smooth to use, to be honest when you have lot of items in Vue it does "chug" unless you have a good PC...but good PCs are becoming easier to get, more common now.
3DMAX will also spit our animations in times Vue and especially Bryce could only dream of...BUT...

3DMAX is expensive as hell, and you need lots of expensive plugins ot get it good, also, those animations were "raster" animations, the quality wasn't good enough for stills...and it has an horrible interface not as bad as Blender, but ye gods...

You can do things so much simpler and faster in Vue. If vue could use other renderers directly inside Vue, it may help.
I use Maxwell renderer and unbiased renderers like that blows the pants out of anything else..unless you want "non-realism", which I often do, actually.

What I don't like about Vue or tweaks I'd like are (some as Chipp has said):

-I want ot see directly in the material editor the model I am working on, not a sphere or cube, but the actual MODEL I am working on the material!
yes I know you can use the preview window, but that's not as good. Bryce has had that feature for years and makes material manipualtion far more precise
(but it's Deep Terrain Editor is the pits!!! yikes, sort of like Vue's Advanced Material Editor but makes no sense to normal Humans hehe)

-The terrain editor needs massive revamp. As I've said for years, even adding the ability to let clipping brackets act as masks, preventing work on clipped off areas, would help. Bryce has had that for 10 years
It also MUST get the ability to make overhangs and caves, true 3D culpting is what we need.

-Easier way to get Photorealism. Chipp's a bloody genius, see his Interior Pak, but to get what I regard as Photorealism like that is beyond me!!
Oddly I usually preffer non-realism, I like a "Painterly" look for my fantasy stuff, I can't think of a way to improve that painter look but I know it could be done, hm.
But photorealism is a must. I just can't do Photorealism to any quality I like, so I don't try for it.

-Random camera on planet surface, nice feature of mojoworld, hit a button, randomly takes you to another place on surface, with fractal terrains it's good becuase you never know where you may find a beautiful shot!

-Planetary rings, (true) moons and space backgrounds. Again, Mojoworld has these, and while you can do it with add moons/imports, doing it natively would be very nice as Vue is now doing planetary renders. ( I mean actual 3D obejcts with advanced procedurals, not just 2Ds as 3Ds have correct shadows)
Improved stars are a must, Vue's default stars are horrible!
Mojo has some gorgeous space backgrounds that are true sphericals, so you can do space animations etc
this is my Mojoworld page to give you an idea what I mean:
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/artofadreamer/htm/mojoworld.htm

-enlargeable parts of the UI, the rotate/move camera icons etc get very small on large screens which are more and more common.

:)

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models, D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!