My two cents: MoI appeals to me because it's so transparant. I discovered the application just two days ago, but I was able to immediately see through the interface and use it. That's a rare and precious thing. But the difference between an "instance" and a "reference" in 3dsMAX is (in my opinion) obscure. The way you describe it "instances" sounds okay but with an additional "reference" feature things could be getting too complex, as seen from my perspective.