Yeah, that is usually how it goes, not to mention a lot of touch up work in photoshop after the fact, and if one thing goes wrong, you may have to redo most of it. As for worth the trouble, it depends on what you want, your hardware and the render engine, and what matters most to you. For example, here is a necklace pendant I made, rendered in a quick screen shot like situation, and that exact same piece rendered in daz's iRay.
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Your hardware and the render settings also make a huge difference. This one took me 29sec. to render.
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This exact same character, rendered with different settings, took me 23.5min on the same hardware.
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Most people tend to set those renders up, and let them run while they sleep or do other things. My goal is to build a second box to work on while this one is rendering.
Don't get me wrong, I am not telling you to use Daz, in fact I honestly can't stand it, but I have a pretty easy time making people in it, compared to Blender, and I like iRay's metal effects, but you should use what works for you. I think there already is a game using second life, and at least one using the sims, so you know, go for what you want. There is room for all kinds.