I always found other ray tracers hated rendering point lights with scattering or high bump specular mats so never tried them in Superfly. HDRI maps have the benefit of the rays always terminating on a light value and not just spinning off into space. The other problem I find with using light objects is its necessary to add geometry and realistic mats for the lighting to work - consider sitting in a room at night lit with a single light bulb, the shadow produced is caused by the light reflecting off the walls, ceiling, floor and everything else in the room, to render that convincingly requires a room to be created in the scene and mats setup to reflect the light correctly. Although fake, HDRI lighting will introduce a level of ambient lighting without all the extra work. This is why I think it is better to start off with this type of lighting before moving on more complex lighting setups.