Yes. I also wonder that every day another user pops up and can afford 3ds max.

At the same time they often don't want to spend money for plug-ins, models, textures or programmers.

Believe me, when I have 5000 $ left for game producing then I would not buy 3ds max. I would pay programmers and artists to finish a game instead and I still can get Blender for free or buy Lightwave for 500