Regarding zips, I think we should keep in mind that 24 'voters' represents maybe about 0.003% of the DAZ customer base, if it reaches 100,000 mark. DAZ needs to do whatever it thinks is best for the majority. 

Having said the above I would also personally prefer ZIP files. I would be happy with an executable which requires that I actively accept the EULA, and if I accept the EULA the executable then creates a ZIP file in the same directory.