ChromeStar posted at 7:39 PM Tue, 11 April 2023 - #4461836

Poser 12 felt like a pretty significant upgrade to me. The speed improvements alone were worth the price of admission. Improvements in material assignment. The addition of PrincipledBsdf. Those are things I take advantage of every time I use the software. It's also been pretty interesting to see functionality added over the course of the release cycle. That increased visibility about what the team is actually working on is what does not match up with the comments above.

The speed was a game changer, but a hugely belated one. Principled came in 70% through 12's lifecycle. It was welcome, but simplified the technology that already existed. The material assignment thing didn't do much for the way I work, but perhaps that's a negative reflection on the way I work ;-)
The greatest thing that 12 had going for it, was an inexpensive upgrade price. As you said, "The speed improvements alone were worth the price of admission."
If somebody said to me, "Here's a script that will increase the render speed by (whatever optix did), for $100" it would have been a no brainer.
But a commenter on my vid made the observation that the underlying technology has been stagnant for a decade, and by and large, I don't much disagree with that notwithstand superfly in 2015. Innovations rather than streamlines have been awfully thin on the ground wouldn't you say?