I like figures from Maddelirium, Vyktorhia, Sabby, and Mousso (to name a few). Realism varies. Realistic, not conventionally beautiful: Circe for G8.

I don't think the G8 characters are actually better than the G3s w/respect to beauty and realism. Realism has to come from the sculpt (with morphs), texture mapping, lighting and rendering. The best figure can be made to look awful with bad handling, and sort-of-ok figures can be made to look great if handled well. Most Daz figures lack nasolabial folds and many look like dolls. This is a cross-generational problem.

Any figure can be adjusted using morphs, and I think it's a good idea to do that. It makes your version of that character look unique.