Quote - Criticising a Poser or DAZ figure for it's technical and artistic shortcomings in this forum is pretty much like telling a mother that her baby is ugly and not like simply suggesting a better quality brush to an artist so he can make better paintings.  :-(
Way too much emotions and knee-jerk reactions.

 

Pretty much.

 

Amazing how what is basically a mathematical recipe can elicit so much emotion, eh? 

 

Quote - But for better or worse, photorealism is the future of CGI. Once one game or movie fully jumps the Uncanny Valley, others will follow, because they have to.

Yes and no. 

I've seen some hellishly-close photorealism, and it's getting very close. I daresay it's getting close enough that real human actors will likely become either voice-actors or simply obsolete in 30 years. Photo models will likely be useless in 10 years. So yeah - you're definitely right in that aspect.

In fairness, I can say "no" as well, because not everyone wants to shoot for that unless they want that kind of career goal. For instance, I'll likely never have the time and energy to push that particular envelope, but that's okay. 

But... all that said, I suspect that at the very least a nod towards easing photorealistic renders is a must-have for future editions of any CG hobbyist program.

Quote - I don't regret the journey as I learned a lot, but I still would have rather used someone else's ready-made figures instead, if only that someone would have made them for me.

Exactly - and note that this happens all the time in the professional realm as well. It'l cost you roughly $5k-$15k for just a head, but you get it exclusively, with all the maps (texture, normals, displacement, etc), properly rigged in the app of your choice, and it's royalty-free for commercial use once your check clears.

 (Now you get to animate it, but...)