> ask for a sphere, I get a sphere. Not some polygon mesh approximating a 
> sphere, but AN ACTUAL SPHERE.

In the end you get a bunch of pixels approximating a sphere though, so as 
long as your polygons are roughly the same size as pixels, you won't get 
anything worse than a true sphere.

> You can construct shapes of arbitrary complexity. Surfaces and textures 
> can be magnified arbitrarily and never look pixellated.

That's just because they're procedurally generated and not textures.  You 
can do the same on a GPU if you want (but usually a texture is faster, even 
a really big one, probably is in POV too for moderately complex textures).

> Reflections JUST WORK. Refraction JUST WORKS. Etc.

What you mean is, the very simplistic direct reflection and refraction in 
POV "just works".  Try matching anything seen in reality (caustics, blurred 
reflections, area lights, diffuse reflection, focal blur, subsurface 
scattering) and you enter the world of parameter tweaking.

> (OTOH, the fast preview you can get sounds like a useful feature. Ever 
> wait 6 hours for a render only to find out that actually it looks lame? 
> It's not funny...)

I usually do lots of quicker renders first, one without radiosity/focal 
blur/area lights to make sure the geometry is placed correctly.  Then do a 
low-res render with radiosity and area lights to check that the 
colours/brightness looks ok overall.  Then maybe another high res one with 
just focal blur to make sure I have enough blur_samples.  Then finally do 
the big one with everything turned on.  And pray ;-)

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