"eventually charge for the Pro/Advanced versions of Studio, as was originally envisaged..."

They tried that for a little while and it was counter productive. I seriously doubt they will ever go back to charging for the product when they generate far more on content sales. Any time you have an "entrance fee" you run the risk of limiting your market. Additionally, the vast majority of users are on the same page version wise and that makes the program easier to support.

I was one of the folk that paid for Studio, and the Pro rigging tools, and was screwed when DAZ gave everything away for free within 15 hours of my purchase; you hit the nail on the head. 15 hours and a big FU when asking for a refund. DAZ has not received a penny from me since. There is no reason to think a future "upgrade" to the permanent Studio beta will not start to cost you again when Genesis 4 becomes available just because the current version is free. The "entrance fee" cost DAZ many hundreds of my dollars when it was removed. Giving the program away "free for a limited time" was the excuse provided for no refund. New DAZ users feel Poser users just don't get the advantages of a free program. Old Poser users like me have long memories. Once bitten twice shy.