Perhaps we can agree if I state that when in LW my character mesh has about 45,000 quad subpatches and that the amount of detail you can put into a subpatched model is a function of number and placement of the subpatch corners/control vertices (just as the amount of detail you can put into a polygon model is a function of number and placement of the polygon vertices.

As I said, if you want to minimize the "weight" of your mesh and can do everything you want in LW, a subpatch model is the way to go. If you want to leverage the strengths of other apps against some of LWs weaknesses, a polygon model is the way to go (with conversion to a subpatch model while in LW.)

Vertices are cheap, so I don't worry about using the minimum possible geometry. Other people do. To each his own!