Quote - I take it... during cloth simulation, the simulation will start with the pose which the figure had when I LOADED it - thur whatever pose it had at the beginning of the simulation?

I'm not sure what you mean. But here is a good work flow to follow  (Thanks to diolma)

Load your figure.

Go to frame whatever and pose. (Make the pose at the 1/2 way point of your frames. IE:  at frame 15 for a 30 frame animation.

Return to frame 1.

Load the clothing.

Enter cloth room.

Set up everything you think you'll need including clothifying the clothing

But before you run the simulation, SAVE!! I cannot stress this step enough. It'll save you hours of time in the long run....

Then run the simulation.  Your figure will gradually move into it's pose and so will the clothing. The pose and cloth draping will be done by the time it reaches your last frame IE: 30.

Go back to the pose room and do your still render at the last frame.  Of course you can move the animation slider to the left and render at whatever frame you like. Or you can render off each frame. Or you can save the whole thing as an animation.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi