Hi,
first of all I want to mention - just so that you know who I am - that some of the Xfrog plants have been made by me, I am one of the modellers. And I can assure you, that no one of use is driving Porsche or something similar. I guess you underestimate the time that is spend to create this stuff and probably you overestimate the amount of money that really makes it into the wallets of Greenworks.
I am not involved into business stuff of greenworks, so i can´t tell you much about. But as freelancer I also have some objects on turbosquid for example.
Now lets say an object/species/whatever costs 10$. 5$ stay at Turbosquid. From 5$ about 30% stay with tax remain 3.5$.
From this I have to pay software, hardware, elctricity and other office stuff. Then I have to pay insurance (and in germany this is a lot), I have to pay something for my rent. Only after paying all that, I can start to spend the rest on private stuff - which means I have to pay my flat, food for my family and everything else which you need to "survive".
I know that for many people it sounds crazy if you have to pay "so much" - but actually its just enough. I just repeat, thats my personal freelancer side of view.
I also know that other people offer stuff for cheap or even free (which I do also). But most of them just do it for fun and it buys them a meal or two. Then there are folks who simply don´t spend money for software. So I think you really have to judge a little bit more fair.
I think this Xfrog deal is a good thing. Yes, its out of the reach of many hobby users - but did anyone from Planetside or Xfrog ever mention that this is the only thing that is ever going to happen?
And I know that you can´t edit the TGO´s. If you want to edit plants, then you have to get the full bundles. But honestly, there are not many people out there who ever edit the plants. I know that especially professional users keep this door open - so that in case they have the option to edit plants. But in 99% of all projects they don´t have the time to generate custom variations.
When talking about Cornucopia - keep in mind that a lot of stuff you get there is copyright protected also - so again you can´t export, its bound to your Vue licencse. You will find objects that are cheap there, but expensive elsewhere. Thats because people don´t get it out of Vue.
About animation - I guess this is on Terragens side. You can animate Xfrog plants and if there will be a way to bring animated objects to Terragen, then you can have animated Xfrog plants.
About Solid Growth and automatic variations - thats a good point indeed. I have been a long time Vue fan and i like the idea of (semi)automatic variations. But actually I almost never used the built in plants. If at all, then for background purpose, never if it has to be something detailed in the foreground. And the Vue wind looks ugly in my eyes ;-) Unfortuanately thats something most developers stay away from. Best results i have seen so far was inisde Houdini, but I guess Houdini is also out of range for most people ;-)
So, that was a very long answer - just wanted to give you an insight into a xfrog-friendly-freelancers-life
best,
Walli