My quality standards are easy to explain:

The newest Poser figure needs to be capeable to render OUT OF THE BOX just as realistically as Genesis 8 or 9 does.

At least the default shape needs to be based on a LIDAR 3D scan of a real human being. (These days even scale model figurines use that tech to enhance realism)

An "eyeballed" morph based on a photographic reference simply won't cut it anymore.

Less alone a mere "artistic" representation of the human form.

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The rigging should be optimized for Poser, but should be still as simple as possible.

Any "clever" rigging tricks will bloat the cr2, make the cr2 harder to modify for a layman and make the risk of breakage more likely.

The geometry should be based on human anatomy, because this is way more efficient than relying on multiple levels of subdivisions and "HD" morphs.

(One of the reasons I think that Genesis 9 is a total step in the wrong direction and probably won't be able to replace Genesis 8 as quickly as DAZ hoped)

The sad thing is that Poser's native tech (Both rigging and rendering) is perfectly capeable of holding its own, that we even already have meshes (Like Poser 5 Don, Poser 6 James or Miki I) that could be easily optimized to give us a high quality figure.

Little example:

This is the Poser 5 Don:

I intentionally did NOT use Poser 5 Judy, because Don has (almost) as good edgelooping as Michael 2 has, which is the gold standard for an efficient Poser mesh.

The rigging hasn't yet matched to the new shape. (And probably never will, as I have more important things to do).

Don's UV is based on Michael 2 (DAZ forgot to copyright it back then so Don can use M2 textures and Judy can use V2's), so there's admittedly room for optimization.

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All in all this was just an experiment to demonstrate that even this ancient mesh can turned into a photorealistic shape, even swap its gender, without breaking.

(And, BTW, "his" new shape was done exclusively with Poser's "On Board" tools like magnets (Lots of them) and the Morphbrush.

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These old meshes are MUCH better suited to compete with DAZ, because their "old school" geometry is much more elaborate and efficient (And basically almost identical with what DAZ based their success on), than all the other "one-trick pony" Poser meshes which were quickly (and cheaply) whipped up just to demonstrate a new Poser feature.

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Anyway, that's just to show that would be possible if the owners of Poser really wanted.

We have the rigging tech and we already have suitable meshes.

But, yes, $$$ and real professional talent is needed. Some well meaning "volunteers" won't be able to create a figure that could hold its own against Genesis.

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Personally, I've focussed my own work on the venerable V3 (And her

derivates), as I've yet fo find a mesh that is as flexible yet efficient, as her.

So I have absolutely no "Dog in this race".

I'm just sure that LF-2 will just be as ignored, as any other Poser meshes have been in the past.

NOT because of some DAZ conspiracy or comunity ill-will, but because her creator(s) simply were not up to the task.

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BTW, this is how realistic the original MIKI is "out of the box":

There are some (small) problems with the mesh and some pretty big ones with the rigging, but nothing that couldn't be easily solved with modern tools.

(I already tinkered with a 90% weightmapped version of her I started "just for the heck of it")

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Why, oh why don't we base our new Poser figures on a mesh that's already "halfway there", instead of trying to do "point improvements" using meshes that are already fundamentally flawed right from the start?

After browsing the current DAZ catalog, can you really say with a straight face that figure like LaFemme is capeable of inspiring any new Poser user?