"By the nature of the case, "mainstream" is going to be what appeals to the largest number of that overwhelming majority."

Still it doesn't mean you have willfully dumb it down to the lowest common denominator.

"Photorealistic" doesn't mean ugly.

"Photorealistic" means that the mesh was sculpted after a real world person and that the artist was good enough so that he could exactly capture each detail.

Doesn't matter if that person was a fugly old hag or a supermodel.

That "people prefer pretty" is no excuse for creating an over-simplified, over-stylized puberty fantasy that would look right at home in one of the gazillion ego-shooter games.

If I wanted that crap in my renders, I could just use an avatar app in my browser.

I want actual human proportions AS THE DEFAULT, not toons, not manga, nor anyone's elses "artistic vision".

Pretty, yes please, but PHOTOREALISTIC pretty.

DAZ has understood this, that's why V5 and M5 are the most realistic DAZ meshes so far.