High-end wasn't mentioned before. But I know, I know, blender is often just not an option. Although I don't find the interface as bad as everyone is saying. But then again, I'm a software developer and I don't find GIMP's interface that bad either.
and it's what free/open source software gets wrong almost all the time (and I say that as an advocate of it), due to the fact devs rarely listen to users. The features are often there but they're not that easy or flexible to use, so often they're practically useless in certain situations.
There was something last year when someone came up with some workflow / design improvements suggestions to blender, and the developers just didn't understand why it was necessary, saying "it's possible to do stuff in blender".
One would think that this is not the case for blender, because of the blender movie projects where users and developers work in the same room.
> There was something last year when someone came up with some workflow / design improvements suggestions to blender
Do you mean these awful ribbons? IIRC he also suggested different views for different tasks, even though blender has always had that feature! What was a valid point where the inconsistencies in the interface and some minor things.
I think that statement can often be taken in good and bad ways, depending on the devs.
Some software I love and use is developed by people who do not care what their users think because they are their own users. They build for themselves and produce excellent results.
Some developers listen to users too much, and end up allowing every piece of their software to be configurable. Even if a very small percentage of users actually needs that configurability. They then lose focus on simplicity and elegance that the majority of their users were attracted to in the first place.
Of course, it goes the other way as well and many pieces of software are better due to user feedback.
"listen to the users" does not actually mean "change the software the way the users say to" it means to listen to how they're failing to achieve the results they are trying for and use that knowledge to improve the software. Listening to users does not preclude sticking to UI conventions and such since your users are unlikely to be software or UI designers themselves.
Houdini's got dual 2/3 support though.