1-I can't tell you how to do this with Maya but it is possible with Cinema 4d so I would guess other programmes have their work around. To do it in cinema you use a plug-in called riptide, this lets you open the obj file of a figure as one complete model, you can then do the morphs and when you export it splits it back up into the figures groups. Then you can use a program called add-morph which is part of the "tool collection" (available in the store here), what you do with this is load up the figure cr2 and then tell it where all your obj files (you just created with riptide) are and it will automatically create your body morphs in the selected cr2, the time saved with these two applications is phenomenal.

2-a few years ago I would agree with you about not using polygons for anything organic but now I much prefer working with polygons, again working with Cinema to create something organic and would start with a low polygon model and add it to a hypurnurbs (a type of interactive smoothing) and then work from that. Once you have the basic shape made you can then use magnets and brushes to add detail. The magnets and brushes can also be used to create morphs for poser models, for example if you had some clothing that you wanted to add a few creases too you could select the brush tool, set it up as a small bush with low power and set it to affect normals and then stroking the model would cause a clothing type crease. I hope this helps, Steve