Hey Acid

interesting topic.

I've used poser in actual production work in the past and its a life saver at the end of the day for getting work out. We even looked at Quidam too when that came out However there limitations to all these types of apps. Because of the generic nature of the mesh/software they become limited to a point and the models become recognised as being from these types of software, no matter how many morph targets to the body or etc you make, there's always a giveaway, right down to the deforming areas. I kid you not.

I think when people are new to 3d character modelling etc, they are drawn to these apps instantly, but then theres no harm in learning from them. One way is to export meshes out to say Maya to use as a template to work around

But if you are looking for something unique and different, then the best way is to build your own models

Jay