So, first, really like to thank the Brain Trust at SideFX for what they've done with integrating the USD spec into Houdini 18 under project Solaris - its a master stroke of genius.

So, the way I see the Houdini landscape going forward:

* Create assets in SOPs
* Use PDG to create variations of those assets and contact sheets/animation previews of the variations
* Use LOPs to create looks of those assets from the variations/previews and/or FX Layers
* Back to PDG to create contact sheets/previews of the final looks
* Back to LOPs to put together shots with the final looks and lighting
* Then to PDG to render

The entire pipeline is procedural, any upstream changes are automatically picked up downstream.

Also, use SOPs for insanely powerful instancing, procedural + manual layout, and much more