Yep, that's the reason for no scatter in C4D - if a product has a native solution, best to go with that (people are already using it, it is instantly "compatible" with the software, etc.) Just like Max had Slate so we didn't write a node material editor for it, but C4D has no equivalent so we did write one for that (no small task :) ), C4D has mograph which is far more powerful and flexible than anything in Max and should work well for scatters (as well as many other things of course!)