One would think that this cadre of DAZ vendors would be content to revel in their newfound riches, with benign indifference to what's going on with Poser.

If your Genesis & D/S vendoring is as prosperous as you say, then why waste your time here trying to convince us to abandon ship?  Go forth into your golden future and leave us poor Poser wretches to our miserable fate.     

Got poser version from 2010 to 2014 game dev and game dev was definitly my latest!
Sorry but if SmithMicro would come up with new poser versions and ask $499 for this program, then it need a complete rebuild from the beginning and lot's more of innovation. at a price range from $499 i expect realtime dynamics and realtime softbody and parenting features that work a lot easier then it 's available today in poser. the feature of poser is Blender but not anymore at a price range max around $100  poser is not worth $499 anymore, there is no powerfull innovation.

The days of 3d milking in poserworld are over.
Indie versions available of Modo and Maya LT and a free Blender alternative.
Zbrush and 3dCoat all around same price range only difference those other software really works well.

Accept of course that, if you have Game Dev you should not have to pay $499.  The question has to be then are the new features worth what you will be asked to pay for the upgrade and that is a decision that only you can answer. So far I have upgraded Poser at every release from Poser 5 and the only one I regret is Game Dev and that had nothing to do with the working features.  Even then I paid peanuts for it as I took up the launch offer so I am not that upset.

Lots of people here still use Poser when there is a 'free' alternative and continue to do so even though some try to ram the alternative down our throat.  You have stated what you need in the next version for you to upgrade and there is nothing wrong with that but it is your personal opinion, nothing more.

 

 

I use Poser 13 on Windows 11 - For Scene set up I use a Geekcom A5 -  Ryzen 9 5900HX, with 64 gig ram and 3 TB  storage, mini PC with final rendering done on normal sized desktop using an AMD Ryzen Threadipper 1950X CPU, Corsair Hydro H100i CPU cooler, 3XS EVGA GTX 1080i SC with 11g Ram, 4 X 16gig Corsair DDR4 Ram and a Corsair RM 100 PSU .   The desktop is in a remote location with rendering done via Queue Manager which gives me a clearer desktop and quieter computer room.