I do really like the way Houdini handles cloud creation, but if you notice, it's all random too. Just chaotic fractal noise applied to meta-shapes.
Another issue that always drives me nuts about Houdini, especially when a company decides to use it for Clouds, is they always look like smoke. Their particle simulator, or however people commonly set it up lacks that "light" cloud like animation and reacts like ground level smoke rising to the atmosphere. This may be why Houdini is often used for Skymaps just like TG without animation.
Matt once played a little joke on us on April fools about what if Land Generation was easy, like drawing almost. I'm a little to keen on development and think that was actually real, and not a joke. I believe he is working on something for terrain, at least.