Why not do Poly count and texture management?

I prefer Lower Poly figures and structures, but with good textures and displacment maps.

Good displacement maps offer a lot more, and offer more flexible options, then then lots of Poly's.

It is the same issue for using a V4 (or any other dense mesh) with all high res textures for background figures where they will be rendered 2" high max.
Use lower Poly count as the figures/objects move further back in the scene.

Good poly count and texture management is the cheapest solution to RAM Problems.

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!