before you buy, look at your own work and free stuff creatively.  if you can make a knife, you can make a hat.  hats aren't but so organic, most of the time, especially in the Victorian era.  and a lot of stuff doesn't need to be.  for instance, most armor doesn't bend in real life, so why should it bend in Poser?

if you're really looking for flexibility you might prefer Poser. it's pretty easy to make dynamic dresses for Poser.  it's absolutely impossible for you (not DAZ) to make dynamic clothes for D|S.

in the end, it's about how far you're willing to go, how much you want things to look the way they do in your head, and what you're willing to pay for to get there.  the one thing i'd advise is to look at figures not based on their version or what people use most in the galleries.  if M2 fits your style of male best, use him.  if the free Apollo does, use him.  if Sydney or Jessi are fine for your work, use them, not a version of Vicky.  all of the figures have their advantages and drawbacks, so if you're coming to the whole business clean, go with whatever works for you.

the thing about most of the work in the galleries is the content came first, not the artist's vision.  most gallery work was made by someone seeing something they thought was cool, acquiring it, and building a scene around it.  some of the most creative work i've seen has been that of people who decide to make a narrative with their work.  because they have their own story to tell, they run into the limitations of existing content.  as a result, they've had to do a lot of painting (even if it's just to make textures), a lot of re-purposing for content, and (if they could) some modeling.  so when you look at something, you can't look at what it is, but what it could be.