Is it just me, or has the entire focus of Carrara taken a "Backseat"  to DAZ-studio-type products.

Many C5 users thought C6 had issues/bugs, (not the least of which was the existence of a boxed version) which went unfixed.

And they reacted, understandably, by waiting, and waiting, for a boxed version.
It nave came, so they never bought.

SO what did DAZ do in return (READ: Retaliation)?

Well....have you noticed that there's no price break for a Carrara 5-to-Carrara 7 upgrade?

So, what I get from all this is: "Buy the upgrades, buggy or not, incomplete or not, hard copy or not, or "Start from scratch", because the C6 boat has sailed."

Am I alone in the belief that a "hard" copy and a manual ought to be rights of software ownership?

So be it. For me, at least, it's "No Disk, No Book, No SALE!"

Not to worry. I'm just one (lost) customer.