And yet there is perhaps a lot more truth in that comment than you'd ever admit. I wonder why for example that 'pros only' forum has only 16 members so far. Such a thing has been tried in the past before and failed. Why would it work now?

Honestly a lot of the more experienced users tend to lose their interest in 3DGS and move to other programs by the time they're really able to use 3dgs to it's full potential. Think about Unity3D, the free Unreal engine and so on. There's so much else.

The fact that you can still use C-script and the relatively newbie-friendly lite-C too isn't perhaps that relevant to getting things done in 3DGS, but it's definitely a serious clue about the target audience.

Just think about how Unity3D automatically integrates with other programs like 3D Studio Max and Photoshop within a very neat and effective work-flow. It's aiming at an entirely different audience. One that can't easily be classified as 'absolute beginners' by any standard.

3DGS is no Click-n-Play or Gamemaker and still requires skills (especially programming skills once you'll get serious with it), but I think it's not a wrong classification to think of it as a beginner engine.