just to throw in there:
i hate Max's overlapping window interface. i had to use it for work experience, so the next day i brought in my laptop with blender on it and did everything on that before exporting to Max. maybe there's something i can do about it, but i will not because i have perfectly good free software that never has that problem and has a very useful and infinitely customisable non-overlapping window interface.

i don't think that it can be argued that blender is less easy to learn. instead, people are just more likely to be accustomed to a different interface, and hence reject blender's.

julz