the modo renderer kills blenders hands down....but blender is about to get a shader and render overhaul soon....I don't like maya either, those that started there stay there....so it seems.
as far as the sculpting goes yes, aside from the UV distortion...I cannot vouge for that, my UV's do tend to get messed up if I do not sculpt before unwrapping...I have already seen all the new modo stuff, I'm a total technology nerd(software included)...do not get me wrong I do like modo, a lot actually, but since I finally made the switch to Blender....I can't seem to go back to other packages....another good modeler was truespace 7.5, but it did not seem to be popular enough, but it is free now as well....but lacks a lot of import export options....anyway I need to just leave this thread....all I do it say blender blender blender...it gets old....fast.