"And God is my witness. After 17 years, I am still looking for a good body shape 15-17k poly figure.
I wanted this to work."

Although I prefer the V3RR/M3RR mesh with 30.000 polys, if 17k is your upper limit, why not use the V4/M4 17k LOD mesh ?

The figure in my render is a V4 17K mesh that I reworked into SP3s bodyshape. Uses V4 and SP3 morphs and SP3 clothing.

A 17k Stephanie 4 would be even easier to build, as she's just a scaled down V4 with some extra morphs.

I'm pretty sure the weightmapped V4 rig should work with the LOD mesh, too, with little to no modifications.