*The mesh in only the wireframe to hang the texture on.*

It is texture you see, and it is texture you render ;-)

And that is of couse true to a certian extent. But even displacement mapping cannot match a high res mesh when you displace on the X or Y axis. This was V3. I just don't think you need to sweat lo res as much as you did 10 years ago.

But hey, you know more than I do about it so, *allez-y