This reminded me . . . if you haven't tried
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yet, it might be a consideration to play around for an hour and see if it might complement where you are going with normal map creation:
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This allows me to quickly get various maps started with initial adjustment and sometimes end there - or, update in Substance Painter/other program to adjust as needed.
I realize normals can be generated in Blender, too (I mean, what general 3D skill can't it do?) ... but sometimes specialized programs can offer a bit more of a flexible capability for functions you don't use everyday.
On the environments point ... of course Daz 3D content providers are using 3d Max, Blender, Modo, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, etc. to create most of those environments, props and clothing we find for sale:
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So, any new environment work you do in Blender could be imported to Daz scenes for Iray material mapping and such, since Daz (and Poser, which I prefer) generally excel at making the jobs of flexible camera/render setup and character posing efficient (exceptions apply).
That could always be a bridge between the apps as you start to ramp up your Blender content creation, as one consideration. Cycles is far more flexible than Daz Iray from materials to rendering options, but it will still take more time to setup with newer content until you've built up your material and scene stack, IMHO.