It's a strange argument, really. As I see it, most people don't know what Poser does when they first learn about it. Since most of Poser's users aren't familiar with modelling, it's hard for them to understand a significant number of its functions, even after spending a decent amount of time learning it.
If I was to compare this program to another, I wouldn't compare it to Max, or Blender, or Wings3D. It's much more similar to a game editor. Anyone who has played around with such an editor recognizes the similarities; the main one being that you don't actually construct anything, you just put some things together and voila, instant 3D!
From this perspective, MicroSmith and E Frontier are correct. Poser is indeed the application for the person who wants to create someting during his spare time and doesn't have the urge to get into the whole 3D chapter.
Still, that same person has to face the sort of terminology and technical issues that 3D artists encounter, and the only helping hand is that of the community. From this point of view, Poser is not easy. Still though, it's miles away from having to learn how to model, texture, animate, light, render, etc.

That said, Smith Micro did a good job, I wouldn't say they fooled -or attempted to fool- anyone. So the only actual concern of a Poser user is the ease and speed of learning what needs to be learned. My opinion is that, instead of searching throughout the net, almost randomly, for tutorials that aren't guaranteed to exist, the user can pay a few extra bucks and get a full tutorial series from a professional site. I'd consider this to be a standard procedure for any new program that one wants to be serious about.

The only part of Poser's promotion that may be misguiding, is the one about animation. No, you cannot animate within Poser. Lacking the proper tools, it is neither fast, nor efficient in that aspect, although it does provide a very good starting point, with the figures already rigged and the facial morphs made easy. I believe they could and should have done a better job with this part. Still, with enough practice, something decent may come out of it (like Monty Oum's Dead Fantasy, do check it out in Youtube, it's a great job).

In the end, Poser is exactly what its name suggests, a tool that provides easy posing for figures and the extra option to add more assets to a scene. Nothing more, nothing less.

My only question is, will a decent version of Poserfusion come out for Poser8? Because the one that came with Pro (and it's 1.2 upgrade as well) are extremely troublesome and limited.

Just my 2 cents on the matter :)