Quote - So while in a lot of cases, photorealism may not be art ...

I think it is an art.  Just not with the same emotional impact that other art types might have.

As for Poser photorealism, that's not going to happen in any version out now but I still think that you can get fairly acceptable results if a little bit of care is taken.
Here are two images I did recently in Poser Pro. And while they hardly compare to a professional renderer and I can see things that I still need to improve, I wouldn't say they're bad enough for me to give up entirely.

www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php
www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php