Late reaction, I know the thread is dated (!) but still wanted to comment.

I think there's more to this story than just Daz Studio alone, this goes way deeper.

First the Daz3d company...  in my opinion they don't really innovate, they're simply milking the market. That's not necessarily a bad thing mind you, but... it also results in consumers not getting the quality that they could have.  When I got into Daz Studio (now an easy 10 or so years ago) I went all out: also bought into Hexagon & Bryce 7. So now look where those two projects are at?  Abandoned is what. Sure, there's a beta version of Hexagon out there but at this time these two software environments are honestly a bit of a joke; - with all due respect -.

Hexagon is fun, but Blender is a heck of a lot better (note: I don't even like Blender myself!).  Bryce 7 then...  the funny thing is that last weekend I began studying options for terrain building because I'm getting tired of having to wonder what scenery I'll be using for my render and Bryce is becoming more and more frustrating to use. Lo and behold: I discovered software like TerraGen, Gaea and then discovered that you can now also download E-On's Vue and PlantFactory for free!  Fun fact about TerraGen (and Gaea): they also provide free to use ("community") versions (I am planning to grab licenses though), and those free versions easily blow Bryce out of the water. Well.. Bryce and that new UltraScenery 2 plugin.

One could argue that the Daz3D company is somewhat getting desperate for revenue. I base this opinion on that awful NFT push, but also considering that they're abandoning projects like Hexagon and Bryce, trying to reduce overhead (= my opinion!) by going back to a uniform Genesis base model and of course: they're also reducing features in Daz Studio itself. Latest development is that support for 3Delight is going to get removed.

... speaking of which: the 3Delight engine itself has been in continuous development, latest release is from last year. But Daz3d couldn't be bothered to keep up it seems.

Now... it may sound like I'm heavily criticizing the Daz3d company, and in a way I do (that NFT nonsense was too close to a legalized scam in my opinion), but this brings us to another issue... I can't help but wonder if the whole CGI market isn't in a bit of decline?

The Bentley Systems company took over E-On (I'm assuming for their expertise), and then they just started giving away Vue and PlantFactory and tons of assets. ...including the right to use this for commercial purposes. And do not underestimate this like I did: I began working with Vue to see what it's all about I'd say it's the holy grail for any type of Daz Studio user!  There may not be a direct bridge, but it's easy to export meshes and generate HDR domes to complement all that.

TerraGen and Gaea are world / terrain builders which have also been used in high end movie productions. And yet simple hobbyists like myself are allowed to pick up a free version (sometimes even for commercial purposes), and better yet: their licenses are IMO also very much affordable at $199 (Gaea even has an Indie license that goes for $99).

My point you wonder?  When I like something I try to learn as much about it as I can, and I know for a fact that both TerraGen and Gaea used to sell for much more (not that I'm complaining ;)).

Then another issue: the downfall of the ShareCG website?

If you ask me then the whole market is having issues.

Of course.. just my 2 cents.