The problem I see for the "pose by morph" is conforming clothes...

CAL who is around here sometimes but not often had a trick in many of his props where morphs appeared to transition through space accurately. I always wondered if he had a hidden correction morph ERCed or something. He would have a chair fold or a lid swing open as a morph on a one piece prop without distortion. I tried replicating it with a rotational morph and a fix morph dialed by hand and it worked but I guess with ERC you would need the fix to ramp up and then down as the primary morph was dialed in.

An eye gimmick I really like is look-up/down left/right dials on the head with an additional "convergence" morph that controls the degree to which the line of vision of the individual eyes cross or diverge. I find it easier to work with than other methods.

I don't really like multi-part tongues as opposed to morphing tongues but I have wondered if it would be easier to deal with the eyes if the cornea was a separate (non moving) body part as opposed to a material zone. My preferences are particular though I know... I prefer the teeth and tongue as a separate body part for convenience in making morphs for the head and I don't mind posing them seperately since I often want to place them by-hand anyway.