In response to the OP:

The dissatisfaction you have with the products available and their perceived quality can only be rectified by creating your own.

When I first got Poser, it took me a week to decide that I was never going to be satisfied with what was available for it. (Poser 6, IIRC) After taking a look at the meshes, materials, textures, morphs, deformers, etc... It became overwhelmingly obvious to me that, instead of spending hours trying to kludge things together from different suppliers and artists who had differing standards of quality, I would have to create my own content. So, I learned how to do it.

I admit that it's no simple thing to learn a new skillset. But, if one is properly motivated, it is not a chore. There is absolutely no product out there that is ever going to be "exactly" what you want. Everything you buy is just going to be "good enough." Even the products that you love will eventually show some sort of deficiency or may reveal their lacking of a feature you'd like. The solution doesn't involve a judgement that insists the product is "bad." (Though, there are plenty of products being sold that aren't "good.") The solution is that you have to either modify the product, yourself, or get someone else to do it for you. It's usually faster to do it yourself, even if you have to learn something new in order to achieve that.

On Poser compatible human figures: There isn't one Poser compatible character figure that I am aware of that is "photorealistic."(Resembling the physiology and proportions of a true human being.) Poser was never meant to be a photorealistic application nor were its figures intended to be photorealistic. If one want's photorealism, one can come close to achieving that through a bit of hard work. But, without very heavy editing, true photorealism for figures isn't achievable. Even with everything short of creating your own figures and rigging, one can't achieve true photorealism. (And, let's not even get into "scale" issues.) Major Hollywood studios have a difficult job of even approaching that, so it's no surprise that mom&pops trying to sell interesting Poser/DS content can't manage it, either.

As artists strive to push the limits of Poser and DAZ3D, the work becomes more difficult. That's not due to the limitations of "3D Art." That is due to the limitations of the tools being used. I don't buy much of anything anymore. (I do buy hair, occasionally, just for something new to fiddle with. Oh, and python scripts, since I don't "Python.") The reason I don't buy much is because I choose to create what I want.

But, I do look to see what new products are being offered. As far as I am concerned, the only recent innovations have been Reality 3's Luxrender exporter for Poser, Weight Mapping, and Indirect Lighting. These aren't "innovative" 3D advancements. But, they are for the Poser community, so I'm glad to see them. However, many other products offered by many vendors are simply "variations on a theme." Why is that? The reason is that they are all limited to the toolsets they are meant to be used with.

Given that is the case, what is an artist to do when they are confronted with limitations in their toolset? You know the answer - Get different tools and acquire the skill to use them to obtain the goal that you seek.

There is no reason why anyone can't learn to model, texture, write scripts, develop custom materials, all that jazz... A seasoned Poser user will understand a great many things about the technical issues of 3D Art. They can explore that knowledge further by acquiring toolsets that give them greater access and capability in 3D Art. I honestly do not understand why very long-time users of Poser/DS have spent thousands of dollars on third-party content and have not once also delved into actual 3D object creation. I just don't get it. Almost every single common problem I have seen mentioned by users when someone complains about current product quality/availability or satisfaction can be solved if they just decide, for themselves, that they're going to solve it by learning a new skill.

The only reason that I like Poser is because it introduced me to creating 3D objects and it's fairly easy to use, rigging and posing-wise. As far as the content that people sell for it, I'm not impressed unless it truly does something new or really delves into a new capability presented by the base software. I have yet to see any claims of "innovation" in recent offerings actually be "true." It's just variations on a theme and, if that is all it is, I can do that, myself.

So, my advice is this: Go grab an easy to use modeller like Milkshape or Hexagon (Even if it is sometimes buggy and hates certain video cards.) Go grab a free graphics program, like GIMP, or pay for Photoshop. Grab some other freebies, like UVMapper and Morph Manager (I still use it, occasionally) and grab some tools, like MorCloth, Autogroup Manager and QuickConform, and have a field-day creating exactly the sort of things that you really want for your 3D Art. Later, when you have tired of any limitations you feel that are in Poser/DS, move on to bigger and better 3D rendering packages. But, once you learn the necessary skills in creating your own content, Poser/DS can keep you happy for quite awhile.