I also think a hair module would make all the difference.
Max and Maya have it as high end options.
Lightwave seems to now come standard with it.
ZBrush has always had it at entry level.
It looks like Blender now offers it for free, mind you 
Some people also comment on messiah’s renderer as unfinished, Monte Carlo and all?
I’m actually bowled over by this application, renderer and all!
I really think hair would make messiah a great all round entry level application.
And then the professional version should keep a lot of pros happy,
with host applications and all…
I’d really like to consider messiah in a near future 