The Maya renderer is just fine, nothing wrong with it other than the fact that you have to set it up yourself. Once you learn it you can make some great images. But RAT and Mentalray are so much easier to use.

Maya was originally made for professional artists, so no "make pretty picture" button in it. But now with the price drop 3d hobbyists can now afford to use it so I guess A/W will continue to "dumb down" the product, but as far as I'm concerned, it's the best out there!

Darkon