I am on the fence.  While supportive of the Blacksmith development effort, my experience is not great.  I feel the same as the OP.  I have maintained Blacksmith since version 3, and although I have attempted many times ~ have yet to complete a project or even a texture map with the software.  Probably due to unfamiliarity, I always ran into various dead ends and reverted to ZBrush to complete the project.  ZBrush I use almost every day and cost me $700 to procure.

The decision I am facing is do I update BS again with a very incertain ROI?  Version 6 will cost me $80, which puts my total BS investment at more than $600.  With all the paid updates we are approching the cost of a professional package.   Pixeologic does not charge for its ZBrush updates.  So will Version 6 finally meet expectations and become my go to app for painting and sculpting DAZ & Poser Figures?  
Frankly history does not support that projectuon and it appears that annual updates are part of the business plan making the total cost of ownership comparable with mid-range professional 3D software.