As I understand, Nitrous is holding back DirectX realtime previews of 3ds Max. The insane potential of ShaderFX and DirectX realtime shaders is badly hindered by lacking support by Nitrous. While Nitrous can provide nice looking AO and shadows for regular materials, they do not seem to work at all for DirectX materials. Due to this Max just can never achieve similar quality in its viewport as Maya's Viewport 2.0 or Blender Eevee.
Realtime previews directly inside 3ds Max are vital for staying relevant. Branching it off completely to a separate program with different workflows (3ds Max Interactive) doesn't cut it as it's inconvenient to change programs if you don't need to use VR.
