Eight infinite lights. One with shadows. No fancy skin shaders. Baked on highlights.
Works for me for quite some time. :-)

Sorry, but it's NOT the IDL, IBL and whatever else new toy you have that makes a render realistic.

It's accurate meshes and good textures. (Based on actual photographs and not on procedurals)

You might be able to add the last 0.001% of "realism" with a fancy light set and skin shader, but only if the foundation (The mesh and the textures) are right.
But if the last 0.001% in realism takes 1000 times longer to render, I'm sure a lot of people would say "Thanks, but NO thanks", just like I do. Lol.

My point:
Focus on BETTER, more ACCURATE  models with BETTER textures.
(Like Stonemason does)
Make Poser MORE EFFICIENT instead of dreaming up stuff that's completely unpractical for most people in the end.

Stop trying to emulate the big boys (Max and MAYA) and instead have a good hard look at what the gaming industry does.

But I guess that would be way too easy for some people here.  ;-)