I have to disagree with you on DAZ3D being the only option that looks decent because of photorealism, and that HS always looks like trash. In the former case, not only is there risk of uncanny valley issues, but many of the models are incredibly similar from game to game because they use the free assets and minimal purchased assets, with little actual work put into them. In the latter case, just as with DAZ3D, it comes down to the skills of the creator to create a decent looking character. A recent thread on the lewdgaming reddit where a creator showed off his creation immediately came to mind
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and why are so many Honey Select creations meh, or heavily asian? Because it's easy to get into so a lot of people who aren't very creative or have good aesthetic sense can make whatever they want, and/or those designs are what they actually wanted to create (even if we might think it looks bad).