"...represents the conventional (condescending) thinking that is based on an outdate status quo."

What you take for condesention  is merely a statement of fact as I see it. You clearly disagree. I would hardly look down on the make art/point & click yada yada crowd since I am one of them - unnatural acts in Vue and Kerkythea notwithstanding. They are regularly put down here though. Not gonna track down the rat's patootie thread, but I think in it, talked about the long term for the two companies and which the new users would choose. The current generation is entrenched and a few on the Poser side, seem ready to don tricorner hats and start yelling 'Give us our Poser Back!", or some other, not quite understandible meme.

I said years ago that Poser should concentrate on maintaining elegance and simplicity, rather than rushing to add features that can't meet that criteria. Heresy I know to Poser geekdom, but think of the 3 major OSes, which one gets the cult-like devotion? Now to see the passion here, you'ld think that Poser was in a similar position. But, as I have also said often, IMO the forumites are not representative of most users. No, I don't have any stats just my gut, but judging from the complaints here about puerile gallery content, people not adopting new features 'holding back' Poser etc., I'll go with my gut.

A bit more inconvenient truth as I see it. Most users don't give a horse's hindquarters about dynamic cloth/hair because they see it as too complex. (Optitex is easy to use but Daz f---ed that up big time). Most users don't give a walrus' whang about whiz bang if it isn't #1 easy to understand and use, #2 delivers significant value, visible in the type of work they do.

As to the figures, it is absolutely SM's concern and at this point, it better be a critical one. They've been content to do mediocre, knowing that Vickie had their backs - surprize! Contracting out is no excuse for 2nd rate. It's all well and good to say make your own morphs, but most users don't make morphs. Beyond basic expressions and maybe a body shape, they probably don't even use the existing ones that much (more of a guess than a conviction on that). They want pretty out of the box and plenty of pretty one-click characters. 

SM is good for now but there's always the next wave of users. Their 1st exposure to consumer 3D may be a digimi avatar or some other Daz gizmo far removed from traditional stuff and if Daz can put a logo or a link on it they will. And those links will all lead to mama Vickie. SM needs to decide if they're goning to risk being niche in 5-10 years of if they want to compete with what just might be a juggernaut. 

Final heresy. Most users are not going to cream over some, however wonderful community figure unless it has comparable support to the DS figures - and did I say pretty? Free and technically superior ain't gonna get it done - see Linux. SM needs to dig into petty cash and buy said figures or commission their own and then commission lots of supporting content. Either that or they could, find themselves in Steve's position when Bill pulled his chestnuts out of the fire to the tune of 150 large, i.e. kissing rosy red Vickie rump. No, not today, not V5, but this thing ain't over by a longshot.

We are the 99% and we will be heard. No, seriously dude, I counted. There's me Oogie, Pez and that weird yoga chick that kicked Bilko in the nuts when he tried to grab her boob... How many is that?

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