Quote - Some know my opinion.

All poly's have to "DO" something in 3D space.

If a poly does not "DO" something in 3D space it is pollution.

 

to a point.  theres no point obsessing whether your prop or clothing item is 4800 polys or 4000 polys. or whether your base figure is 70k polys or 55k polys.

with modern computers an extra 5-10k polys here or there is pretty irrelevant. keep in mind we were rendering these same figures (in some cases higher poly) over a decade ago on computers far less powerful than the average modern cellphone.

im not saying dont pay attention to your polycount - but would you rather have a merchant spend hours shaving a couple hundred polys off an object so that 'none are wasted', or putting that time towards making a better texture, or another product?