I dunno...I can kind of see why both SM and DAZ might be leery of the point and click, make pretty pictures market. 

Even ten years ago, I knew people who used virtual reality games like The Sims to make images the way I used Poser.  It was lower-res, of course, and posing the figures required some tricks, but it was pretty easy compared to Poser. 

Games like The Sims 2 and Second Life allowed more control and much higher quality images.  It's probably good enough for a lot of people.  The customer base is huge.  And apparently there are people who make a lot of money (illegally) converting Poser content to Second Life and its ilk.  They sell textures, clothing, hairstyles, props, etc., generally for much less than Poser items, but to a much larger customer base. (Many people also do it the right way, of course, making original models.)

I could see SM and DAZ deciding they needed to differentiate themselves from that market by going higher-end.