To cover off the 3D side, what they have done is moved too professional tools. In really simple terms Maya is a better version of Daz, Redshift a better render engine than Iray, and ZBrush a better modelling tool than Blender. All of them come will annual license costs, maybe $3k in total (unless they are students).
Are they wasting their time? Workflow wise it seems slightly better, on the basis that the export from Daz to Maya works nicely and the rendering time is reduced 50%. From what they saying it looks like they have dealt with all the key issues in making it work, but they have not tested it in quantity (say rendering 100 images). So if they hit issues with posing in Maya, then you have to pose in Daz, then export to Maya, which will probably defeat the time saving. My view is that I'm technically impressed, and I'm optimistic that it will work.