"I'd be very happy if Poser had instancing so I could do proper outdoor scenes like I can do in Carrara. I'd also be happy if DAZ did some work on Carrara. Poser and Carrara are perfectly fine for me, and I would like to see it continue in development."

Couldn't agree with you more, piersyf. Love the plant and terrain generating tools in Carrara, and in particular the replicator functions. I hope that Daz devotes some energies on bringing the vertex modeler up to speed, while Carrara's modeling tools are nicely varied I find trying to make selections a little sluggish. It's nice in a pinch (especially the splines and lathing features) but I'm truly most comfortable with Wings as my core modeler. Metaforms, particles, bullet physics; Carrara's got that. As far as DS, I don't know... I haven't tried using it in a long time. I've spent so much time learning the various features of Poser over the years that I too don't see the point of starting over with an unfamiliar app... if that's a bias, well than it's one I'm not afraid to admit and doesn't come from some irrational malice for a company. For figures, definitely Poser.

Here's another outlandish request for Poser... how about standard manipulator gizmos like you find in most modelers as an additional option?

There is of course the "direct manipulation tool" in the Editing Tools... Not sure if that is good enough, but it is a gizmo like you want