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"The vendors are the only collective entity currently keeping the Poser alive, so be nice to them. SM could be nice to them too, by giving them better support (yes, the Fitting Room, yadda... I don't mean that thing, I mean better documentation, better support from company staff, better promotional visibility, maybe a tool or two to automate the inbound workflow...)"

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This is true to both applications Daz and Poser, regardless of what they can do. Both are 100% content driven, if you removed that from them, I doubt anyone would use them for anything, its not easier to rig in these programs than in others, Posing might to some degree or at least for some people be easier. But nothing that would make you decide to use them over another 3D application.

I prefer to use Poser because it does what I need it too for the most part and there is a huge amount of stuff in Poser I never use. Same goes for Daz it have more features than Poser, but when all comes down to it, most of these are most likely useful for content developers or advanced users, for people that just want to use a character and setup a scene, tell a story, create an image. I think there is very little gained in Daz extra features compared to Poser, its not worse but not better either. If people believe that Daz or Poser is what will take their stuff to the next level, they couldn't be more wrong, in my opinion. Hardly any professional artist will try to throw out a perfect image from a 3D application, unless there is no other choice. Trying to hit perfect lighting, rendering out effects etc. simply take way to long. So for still images most will use a program like Photoshop and for movies or animations its some sort of program like nuke, after effects etc. And that's the only way to really move the "rough", meaning the Poser, Daz render to the next level if you ask me. Obviously being good at these programs, can help you make things faster and get a better initial image to work on, but that's pretty much it.

Personally for me, if I had time to really start being creative and make art, I would spend by far the most time learning Photoshop and getting good at that, compared to either Poser and Daz. So I don't necessarily see Daz amount of features as a huge benefit in that regard and also why I don't think Poser is dead by any means, but simply that Poser should focus on what helps people to get to that initial state, obviously as you say support content creators with tools, but they dont have to try to match or copy Daz features. I would rather that they spend a lot of time getting Poser better integrated with the other big 3D applications, such as Blender, 3ds max, Maya etc. That would create a much better future for them, rather than trying to match or compete with Daz,,just go their own way. And of course be sure to supply Poser with top notch 3d characters!! So they don't have to play by Daz rules.