The workaround I mentioned was in my first message, about making a default  startup scene.

The render settings in the screendunp look pretty standard, but we can't see the the transparency and reflection settings, nor the anitaliasing. They are "behind" the edit buttons.
If you wan't to find out what you can do with something in Vue, it's a good idea to click the "Edit" button to see what it reveals :)

Don't pay too much attention to the estimated render time at the beginning of a render, it'll be lowered once you let it run some more.  Unless your doing something really wrong in your settings, Vue should render faster than Bryce.

There are no "all-purpose" best settings, then everybody would use them. Depending of the type of scene you're rendering, some effects can have low quality. For a standard nature scene, you don't need high settings in the relections and transparency tracing. That's for scenery with glass and metals.
Check the atmosphere settings, and lower the quality of the haze etc. if you don't need to render a grain-free sky.
Lower the quality settings for GI and Radiosity light models, often -1 will provide good results for nature scenes, and be sure to use the "outdoor radiosity" model. You only need the full radiosity for indoor scenes.