I personally would rather produce more realistic renders than renders that look obviously computer generated. The problem with getting as much realism as you can is that you have to use real world lighting, soft shadows reflections, etc. and those require higher than normal settings and that translates into unknown rendering times. I have found those render times that are on the edge of the screen are usually not in the ballpark with their accuracy and they just tell you the elapsed time only and not the estimated time until finished!
I would be more apt to use better settings and be willing to wait it out if, and I say IF,  Bryce had a way of telling me how long it is going to take to render at the current settings - maybe I would be willing to reduce the settings and settle for a less-than'realistic render if I had an inkling about the settings/endertime trade-off.
As it is now, it's a crap-shoot in how long your computer is going to be tied up to finish the renders and those of us that don't have render farm capability are in it for the duration - if they really want the render at the settings they have chosen and have the patience.