Eeh... argee'd. Until map quality in general goes up
"in general" map quality can't go up. Just go to the mapping forum and all you see is the same "throw geometry at BSP and see what sticks" There's no pressure for it to get better when the same 3 maps with misaligned brushes, low-res textures, etc. get all the play time.
Very few mappers spend time and detail making their maps polished. I make custom textures and models for everything that needs it, no compromising.
A player a few weeks back showed me an amazing map that was very well done, used some CTP textures and he requested a few models that you two probably don't consider to be "practical" but they fit his map. I've almost completed those.
However, nearly every model in this thread has been for my learning/benefit. If James and the other "good" or "serious" mappers wanted to take advantage of trying to get some decent detail via models, I would work with them.