I think what also helps keep V4 and M4 alive is that Daz will release those figures for free (along with some nice addon packages like V4++ and M4++) every once in a while. I already got these for free many, many years ago during an earlier Daz promotion, but obviously it helps that Daz does still push V4 and M4 to some degree by giving it away. People will always flock to stuff that they don't have to pay for (initially), like figures, and 3d packages like Blender.

I would consider pushing the idea that Bondware should give away a limited version of Poser for free and try to adopt a make-money-from-content business model like Daz, but I fear that it just wouldn't work precisely because the compelling content isn't there, unlike with Daz. But at the same time, trying to sell a 3d package for over $100 is always going to limit your ability to grow your user base... people are getting more and more used to open-source software (free).

Bondware needs a way that content like clothing and hair will work seamlessly across all figures (older ones like V3, V4 to newer ones like LaFemme and Dawn), no messing with Fitting Room because new users simply won't bother to spend the time to learn it, and that way content creators can make clothing and have access to all Poser users that are on whatever figure. To me that means a new dynamic cloth simulator that is far superior to the current outdated Cloth Room, but has the power of something like VWD (but with a ton of presets or the ability to analyze the mesh to apply a preset to it accurately). I buy the cloth, I position it so that it overlays the figure in my scene, tell the Poser cloth wizard that this item is cotton (or the content creator provides the presets that tell the new cloth wizard what is constrained, what is not, etc). and then in seconds it just simulates what I need...