"Strictly speaking" Pauline is competing against all figures and there morphs, not just V7. Also as G3 is an entirely free resource including the supporting app, a direct comparison between the two would not really be realistic/fair. The buy-in price will be considerably higher for Pauline (Base or otherwise) if the usual SM figure sales points are implemented for her release putting her more as a direct competitor to V7. You could also describe the G3 Base as the lite version of the figure and V7 with full morph suite the full version of the figure. Really V7 was the flag bearer and was the first thing most people seen of G3.

You could also say that it's like buying a games console while the base console is important and lays a foundation, the content is ultimately what persuades an investment to be made by the consumer. And when you release or preview your bright shiny new machine to the market sharks, you better have some awesome content ready to get jaws dropping. It's always harder to sell something based on promises of what is coming soon for it. We seem to be being "Told" she will be beautiful when she is morphed and properly textured. I prefer to be shown, as telling generally adds up to just being marketing spin in a lot of cases.

For a base figure you want nondescript or plain, ugly or weird looking is always going to be harder to morph to beautiful. The base is the gene pool for the figure while radical morphs are possible generally the base is still there to a degree. In the side by side you have added I really wouldn't know where to start critiquing the Pauline portrait as my eye is immediately drawn to a number of er... anomalies.

Still waiting on previews of Bends, Mesh, Rigging, Compatibility also.