BB:  on a technical level youre most likely right, and im probably just not using the right settings...

that said, i render organic figures and not thin geometric objects. your above image may be the ideal scenario to showcase filtering but is something that i have not rendered in a decade of using poser.  meanwhile, i have yet to render a single image where the filters have not blurred out/destroyed detail.  to reduce antialiasing on 'overnight' renders ive had better results setting pixel samples (AA) to higher settings (<15) than i have with my (albeit much more limited than yours) experiments with filters - which simply tend to blur the aliasing on the edges as opposed to smooth out the curves. kindof like trying to get rid of aliasing by applying a low quality version of gaussian blur.

that render you posted does look pretty damned crisp though. i wonder how it would compare to one with no filtering and just high AA settings - in both results and rendertimes.

im not averse to learning new things, however, and ive learned a lot from you in terms of lighting and shaders - so if you prove me wrong and demonstrate a faster/better way to get smooth images ill be grateful.