I use boring old sequential save to facilitate variations and adjustments, as well as to protect against disaster. Big modifier stacks are their own hassle. They can explode on you, too. I can't speak to what's going on in Houdini, and I don't care about it. It's enough to deal with Blender and the other software I actually use.

Re: Sorcar plugin for Blender. Has anyone used it? Can anyone vouch for what it actually does? I'm guessing no. I watched the video I referenced above. It didn't look like anything I wanted to use. Maybe I missed something.

And what does any of this have to do with making money in Blender? Nothing as far as I can tell. Just navel-gazing.