I think this all depends on the user, and their goals.

If you were planning on getting "into" the industry, Lightwave is acceptable as a choice, even without the fancy rendering, after all, if you are a modeller, its best to get proficient with the tools, let they guys doing the rendering worry about the shaders and lights.

You won't get into the industry using Carrara. You will probably end up being a professional hobby Illustrator or animator (or like me, get an occasional NASA render published or book Illustration gig).

Hobby isn't that bad but you need to do everything, Model, Texture, Shade, Light, animate if needed, sound, FX's... its harder, as you end up as good as your weakest skill.

In the industry, you will likely only do one thing from the above list, and you need to be really good at that one thing, others will be taking on their specific skill and taking your work to their professional standards.

So go Lightwave if you plan on being a professional modeler at that price.

Carrara 7 Pro, Anime Studio Pro 8, Hexagon 2.5, Zbrush 4.6, trueSpace 7.6, and Corel Draw X3. Manga Studio 4EX, Open Canvas 5, WACOM Cintiq 12WX User