Quote - Can I just take any partial pose PZ2 file (i.e. standard PZ2 file with the bits I don't want manually stripped out), rename it as an HD2 file, (and I think it has to be put in the 'Hands' folder so Poser will actually see it?) and apply it in the standard way by clicking the icon?

Poser library files are of two types, fundamentally. Those that add geometry to the scene (figures, props, hair) and those that modify scene elements (poses, hands, faces, cameras, lights and materials). You can, in general, swap content freely within each category. Later versions of Poser let you put pretty much anything anywhere, or so they tell me.

I don't have Kristin, or a version of Poser installed later than 7, so I can't comment further on that. However it is evident that there's some hard-coded behaviour associated with the hand library. Having mis-named hand bones strikes me as a mistake.