You mean your piece about sophisticated primitives? I just read it - good advice! I always mean to work the way you describe, "roughing in" a model before I get into heavy detail, but it's hard to resist getting into textures and lighting effects. But I think Carrara is well suited to this kind of workflow thanks to the "Jump In" feature and the ability to promote a group to a master. You can make a rough object out of several components, group it (and perhaps promote it) and then populate your scene with the roughs. Later you can "jump in" to add detail, clean up mis-aligned objects, etc. without the clutter of other objects getting in your way.