I render in Bryce nearly all the time.  As far as re-applying the materials goes, I do it once and then save the texture (including specularity, bump, transparency, etc.) as a material in my Bryce material library.  Then next time I import a figure and I want to use that texture all I have to do is select the body or body parts and apply the saved texture with one click.  I have libraries for body textures, head textures, eyes, hair, and various other materials I made.

If you're comfortable with using a kind of abstract interface then you'll enjoy Bryce. I've tried Vue several times and ran screaming from it every time.  All those tiny little icons...if I wanted an interface full of little Mayan glyphs I would have asked for one.  Bryce's interface is elegant and simple IF that's how you're wired.  Don't look for a control that says "Translate Y+".  Look for an arrow pointing up.  I can definitely see how some people would feel more comfortable with Vue's presentation of data and controls.  Like many things (PC vs. Mac, chocolate vs. vanilla, dogs vs. cats) one is not better than the other, just more appropriate for particular users.  It's no wonder Bryce is appropriate for me.  In my place of work, for security purposes, all our controls are symbolic or geometric.  There's not a word or a number anywhere.

I like Bryce's lighting and material editor much more than Poser's.  You know how many people say Poser art looks awful?  That's because so many Poser users don't bother to learn the details and just render and present staring mannequins with shiny skin to the world, and that's what the world thinks Poser does.  It's somewhat the same way for Bryce.  I hear people say all the time that "Bryce won't do this," or "Bryce can't do that" and I laugh because I do those things all the time.  You can do almost anything with an imported Poser figure except for a few things, among them: subsurface scattering and dynamic hair.  Perfect your pose before you export it though.  Otherwise you'll have to re-pose in Poser, re-export, and import again, which isn't that big a deal in my opinion, especially when you have all the textures saved in your Bryce libraries.