There is a lot of quality free content out there that was provided by very generaous people and in general the cost of 3D models is significantly cheaper than when I started in this hobby.

There really is no free lunch; as wimvdb pointed out--even with a free version of DS people are going to have to buy content and a lot of it if they want to do anything with it.  Actually I think Daz would be stupid not to have a free version of DS always available; if people really want to do anything they need to buy content and having the free software to run it on gets people sucked in.  Daz at least makes that clear in their little "Dan Makes A Halloween Picture" movie--they say Dan had to buy this, then that, then something else from the Daz Store.

All the flavors of Poser have tons of free content--it may not be content that people like or want all the time, but at least they have a good variety of toons, people, animals, rooms, building and other things.  If one added up the cost of that content it would be significantly higher than the cost of any of the 3 softwares.  A newbie who blew their budget buying any version of Poser can create pitures for  moneys with the included content and not having to spend another dime.  I think that if SM were smart they'd make Poser Debut free and then promote Content Paradise better.