I understand the point you're making but I think you may be misunderstanding mine.  The subpatched object is not a polygon mesh. It is a spline based object. If you "freeze" the subpatched object you WILL turn it into a polygon mesh with easily 50,000 or more polys. The point is, in Poser you MUST use a polygon mesh, the .obj format does not support spline based models. Formats like .lwo (Lightwave object) or .mb (Maya binary) do.
And yes the reason for high poly count IS to add detail. With a subpatch object you can achieve a similar level of detail with less polygons.

Hey! His nose is dry! ... Someone should lick it,  just in case. - Diego