1. I used to use Bryce, it's a lovely app, but Vue is much better IMHO :)
   Sorry Bryster, once you willingly adapt, it's superb (#2), but you love Bryce...so that will stop you (normal psychology, your love of bryce is quite reasonable but such always gets in the way, hey, did for me, lol).
   Some things are very similar between Vue and Bryce, so for me, learning Vue was easy (#3)

2. Yeah the deep functions are complex, but I enjoyed or used to, working in the function editor, as there's so damn much you can do in there, like my "dirt materials" :)
   the "node based" system in Vue utterly blows away the maddeningly abstract and frankly dumb Bryce Deep material editor :/
   Alas nowadays, headaches etc make such a chore at best for me, sigh (that is, creating/discovering new stuff based on mucking around in function editor, so I've about given up on that, regretfully)

3. We've all got biases, all got likes. There is no "best" app, only one you enjoy using the most, OR that is necessary for your task at hand.
   However, undue bias can stop folk picking up new stuff which is bad. I saw Vue as a "competitor for my beloved Bryce, grrr!" back in the day, hehe ;)

However, after Bryce got left in the doldrums by SCUMBAG CORPORATIONS, grr! ()
bryce got sold off and left to rot while other apps advanced, so I reluctanlty tried Vue after some years...and found it outstanding.
() gah, I loathe bean counting, pencil pushing, inuhuman corporations, worst damn menace we've ever created /rant mode off, hehe...

4. Please see my many tutorials on Poser imports, Vue lighting, materials etc :)
   the key is in how you import the materials and set them up for ANY APP, as native material systems nearly always come out a hell of a lot better. ie, say you import to Ligthwave, and you had an applet that if you wish could use the psoer mateirals in Lightwave, they'd suck, versus converting them to Ligthwave materials as the apps innate systems work much better, and Poser's rendering etc is woeful.

So, for Vue, when import, do NOT use "Import as Poser materials", 99% of time they are garbage compared to taking time to tweak them in Vue.

My tutorial index

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/tutorials/htm/index.htm

Vue lighting
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/tutorials/htm/22.html

Optimizing Poser imports
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/tutorials/htm/18.html

this is one of my own renders of Poser imported character :)

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models, D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!