Hello,
You can look at the gallery on this site to see interior renders and see if they got the same issues you have :
Of course, it’s also up to the artist to take Cycles as a tool and make something great with it.
I can probably find crappy renders but the problem may be more on the artist than the software.
To me it’s a bit subjective statement. You must get better feedback from professionals on what is lacking.
In general, clients are good at picking something wrong, but they may not express it, or express the solution in something useful to us as artists. We have to make sure we get a bit into their heads to see the result as they see.
Many time I get some comments, but the solution differs to what clients tell me about, they make instinctive and subjective comments, where a specialist may offer a more precise critique.
In that sense, talking to your colleagues and show them your work will help a lot on having a clearer idea on what is wrong, and that can eventually lead to a technical solution.
Learning more about their workflow will give you ideas than latter you can translate into blender.
Every software has their own tools , but it’s still CG after all, they all have similar features.
Also do you use photoshop to finish your renders ? Most of the time a 3D render is a bit dull and lack a polish pass. That can be done in PS for static images or AE/Nuke for animation.
There is always a tiny bit of post processing in all the renders that we see.
Depending on the case, it’s small touch up. Or worse cases it’s a bunch of work if the initial render isn’t solid enough. Makes sure to ask your colleagues about that.
Good luck ! It’s quite stressful to get these comments but eventually you’ll figure out what to do !
We all rant into these situation when starting to work ! On when you work on something new !