According to phantom3D, the actor divisions are actually better to rig.  As I understand it, they also split up the weight maps in a way that somehow makes more sense internally and functionally.  :unsure:  They do split up morphs.  Every morph would need to cover the entire figure geometry, without the actor division.  Without the actor splits, a Python script would have to iterate over the entire mesh to process a few vertices in what is currently one actor.  :scared:  In fact, get rid of actor geometries and huge parts of Poser's Python API would need to be expanded or revised to accommodate the new setup.

But keeping them means keeping the welds, and the welds are a PITA and a mystery.  :lol:

Apparently the single skin figure type is intended solely for export as a certain weight-mapped format.  Or something.  Maybe shvrdavid will happen along and explain it again.  Anyway, if you try converting a figure to single skin using the menu option, you'll see that bulge maps apparently stop working, among other things.  I guess that export format doesn't support bulge weights, so those aren't supported in single skin.  Very limited utility, that single skin format has.

One could make a single mesh figure using body handles for the skeleton.  That could work, AFAIK.  But you'd run into the potential problems I noted above, and probably others.  :unsure:

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Cage can be an opinionated jerk who posts without thinking.  He apologizes for this.  He's honestly not trying to be a turkeyhead.

Cage had some freebies, compatible with Poser 11 and below.  His Python scripts were saved at archive.org, along with the rest of the Morphography site, where they were hosted.