Yes, VSS does this. It uses the figure's current image maps but replaces the shader tree with your own design. You make any shader tree changes in one place, inside the VSS Utility Prop, then press a button to apply those changes to all relevant zones on your figure.

I think you would need to check that the material zone copy rules (in the VSS Utility Prop) were correct for V3's zone names, and then just replace bb's Template_Skin shader with yours, if you don't want to use the one he developed.

VSS uses the "save as an mc6/mcz file, then read it back in" method.

"If I were a shadow, I know I wouldn't like to be half of what I should be."
Mr Otsuka, the old black tomcat in Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)