This is his choice when he purchasing assets, for which he is not responsible. Why? Open the link using with asset in my post. Look at the preview. Could you have said in advance that this skin texture would be terrible in close-up? No.
His responsibility is for not changing bump maps.
Regarding the bad renders, I can guess what the problem is: DPC is in a hurry when posing. Remember the last special render with Maya. Bad, rough shadows. Also a common problem on his other renders. And I understand why. With the DPCs production scale, with 6000 renders/half an hour of animation per year, he turns a blind eye to minor errors. Visual perfectionism will turn a one-year development cycle into a two-year one with a given amount of content; there is already one example exist.
This will make you unhappy again because you will say "why is he licking every render, aren't we waiting enough? I'll be retired when the game is over."
Viewing angles, distant angles and properly selected light can really smooth out the situation with Maya’s skin. But not in every situation distant angles is possible.
A close angle to the light directed from the side only emphasizes the shortcomings.
As an example, yesterday's work with Maya
No serious skin problems.