Personally I'm loving the emiiter approach.  The thing I can gather, is that it is definitely not for every day use.  Just like everything else in this CG world, it's situational to the scene you are creating.  I find now that I am trying the traditional approach as well as this emitter technique and just going with what works best for the needs of the scene.

On this one, the emitters gave the right shadows for what I wanted.  Two emitters, one squared for fill, one rounded for main lighting and shadowing, opposite corners .  Envosphere with hdr image to help with reflections.

Nudity Advise: