Quote - To that end, I want SM to step back from feature-bloat for a bit, and to focus on  making a kick-ass mesh, because I want good choices.

Feature bloat?  Are you kidding?  Name one new feature from the latest release of Poser that would qualify as feature bloat.  The best figures at any given time have always been limited by Poser, not the other way around.  Weight mapping and the changes to rigging were needed in order that improved figures could be made.  Without new features, new figures would have the same problems the old figures do.  Next we need some kind of solution for body mass, whether done with soft-bodies or spring-bones, it needs to happen soon.  And for animation, IK really does need pivot and IK-FK blending, it is no easier to use and just as problematic as in P4.  What good is another mesh if it still has the same anti-gravity breasts and calves that bend into the thighs as every figure before it? 

Quote - Right now, there is very little of that. Yes, there is Antonia, whose face is damned tough to mold and shape, in spite of being a bendy little wench. There's Bella, which is cute and has a petite figure that I really kinda like, but that face? Umm, I'm really sorry, but yuck - and you can't do much to change that, judging from the renders. Allison? Allison who? 

Have there been any figures that you do like?