great statement, RobynsVeil.  the only thing i'd change is:

"Whether [any renderer]  processes colours correctly without some form of colour-linearising is not a matter of discussion."

the D|S way is great if you want independent developers locked out and high barriers to learning.  pretty much 0 of the techies for the various aspects Poser have equivalents in D|S, because cost and contracts keep the community much more closed.  pretty much 0 of the techies for Poser would been in forums sharing information,  because they either wouldn't have paid for the privilege to be a developer (by their own words), or they wouldn't have shared information they payed to acquire.

it's the Apple style solution, which is great if you don't mind being completely dependent on a relatively small set of developers and innovators who don't share information or let in new blood much at all.  not so great if you'd rather spend time than money, or you're a developer who's not blessed.

all here that use GC (and i'm seeing more and more that silently incorporate VSS PR3 into their content) can do so for no extra cost beyond paying for Poser 6.  it's probably possible for D|S, but there's no one in the D|S community to explain how to make advanced materials based on physics for D|S.  there's no one making free, advanced level tools.

it's a huge assumption that most Poser users outside of the forums are less advanced users than the group of techies here.  that's completely the opposite of what i've seen.  year after year, i watched non-techie college students learn to use aspects of Poser most claim are way too difficult to master.  but the ones i showed this place for certain freebies were driven away by all the "slutty" (their term, not mine) women.  they all made their own content, and were comfortable doing so in a very short period of time.    the same students had to use some of the media editing programs lmckenzie referred to, and they had more problems with those.

most uses of Poser i've seen outside of this community have been far more advanced than average, and rarely  use any commercial content.  when you aren't spending money on every little advance, or even every  render, and you really don't have a choice,  Poser is apparently pretty easy to learn.

i think people are really misunderstanding the issue, because they keep bringing up the "quality" of the eyeballing it method.   linear workflow isn't about individual quality choices.  it's about addressing specific color problems, which are both with darks and lights, in a way that involves less guess work and is therefore more reliable for most. it's like following a blueprint.  for most people, that's going to be easier than eyeballing everything.  but people can and did build incredible structures just by estimating everything and doing everything by hand.