"this would kill all the products out there with advanced material features." "nd why should merchants make content no one can use?"

In what way? I specified that the basic versiow would be able to render anything the advanced version created. As you said, the market is content driven and content creators could create all the Iron Man goodies they wanted. I'm not insensitive to the stifling of innovation notion, it just depends on what the economics are and pricing are. AFAIK, DS is still going with the use dynamic cloth free, create dynamic cloth is going to cost you extra. Whether that's a viable model remains to be seen but it's certainly one way to go. The fact remains that most people seem to not use dynamic clothing in Poser or it's a well hidden secret in the marketplace, despite any particular item selling like flapjacks.

I agree that it's important not to price the creative and talented but poor out of the market but your premise that everyone will benefit doesn't seem to have worked out in this instance. If any feature for Poser should be a compelling, must have, dynamic cloth is it - it's a no brainer. So where's the trickle down? Has bundling it for years caused a wave of creation and use? The extent that advanced shaders are present in content by contrast (the heroic work of BB notwithstanding), lies IMO in the fact that people can use them without necessarily adding a new level of complexity. The problem is not the technology, it's the interface. Make DC as easy to use as conforming - or as close as possible and it will explode - in a good way :-) That may seem unfortunate  but IMO it's just a simple fact.

I don't know if Artist failed or was killed for marketing reasons. It would have been interesting if they had made it or P5 free permanently. People, myself included do tend to be impressed by feature lists even though they won't end up using those features. There are apps that let you use advanced features for a limited period of time, which would give users a chance to see what they really need/want - though a limited number of uses would be better. Then if you like it, pay extra and unlock it as mentioned above.

"I think that rather than eliminate (optionalize) it because it's difficult, make it easier to understand. A better manual and more intuitive interface might be a better way to go. I think that if some of these rooms had be optional purchases they would have died long ago."

Jackpot! I agree. If people aren't using a feature it's primarily because either 1. They don't know it's there, 2. They don't find it useful to them, or 3. they find it too difficult to use. We can go back and forth about number 3 and whether people just aren't trying hard enough but it remains the pachyderm in the temple and one could say the same about say learning the DS interface. Is it too hard or are people simply unwilling (for their own perfectly good reasons) to invest the time to learn it 

Personally, I think that both models (all-in-one and modular) have their advantages and drawbacks.  To me, a bigger flaw in the DS model is that by depending on 3rd parties, you end up waiting/hoping that all your modules will be upgraded to new core versions. That's one reason why I prefer Opera to FireFox.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken