As for vendors? Back in the old days if we wanted something but couldn't find or afford it, we cracked open a mesh-jacking app suite and built it ourselves. We screwed up a lot, and most of it came out looking fugly... but we learned, and occasionally we made some cool stuff that looked pretty when we tossed it in a scene or on a character. If we weren't too embarrassed by it (or simply had no shame), we parked it on Free Stuff so that other people can download it, play with it, expand it, improve it, etc.

Maybe foster that kind of community again, and you won't rely so much on vendors?