I think I did not explained myself well. Maybe saying they are worse is too rough.

You can pick a powerful free modeler like Blender or one that you have tested it works for what you are doing and doesn't gives you headaches.

But at the beginning  I picked AOI and was very happy with it when I was building VRML worlds. It's easy and works great for what it was conceived: VRML and animations. But for modeling for Poser, 3D printing or render in other engines gives some problems.

In the process of testing software you acquire bad habits, stop learning some things that you could have learned before with other good free or paid app.

So I think he should not try everything in the world. He should try what works, has tools he will employ no matter what modeler uses in the future, and makes him get used to model the right way.

He must experiment, but not with every crap in the world. I can really name those: Hexagon, Wings3D, Blender 3D.

What do you use? If each of us recommends him some soft, he may have a good list to try.