Ugh. Remember the old song "Video Killed the Radio Star"? Photorealism, IMHO, has killed a lot of developing artists. You get bogged down in the science and math, just to find out it isn't Vahalla, or give up attempting perfection. What are we going for,  'Wow, great render settings'?

As for those who achieve photo-realism going on to better jobs... think about what you see on tv and in movie theaters. Car commercials are about the only place true photo-realism is standard. Sci-Fi movies mix it with live action. Pixar blends it with a more traditional animation style. Blade Runner, to me anyway, is still the standard for balancing realism and artistic vision.

I'm not anti-realism, I just think it's overrated. It can be downright boring.