> Or, more correctly, you can't do rounded edges with triangles.

Maybe you can't, but other people can.

> If I want a round button on my phone, just select a cylinder and it's 
> done. You could also CSG a cone onto the end for a bevel, or use a torus 
> for a smooth bevel. Piece of cake.

Yup, but what if your button is not perfectly cylindrical, how do you do the 
bezel/round then?

>> And you're stuck with perfectly cylindrical rounds, IRL they are not 
>> usually used on edges because of the discontinuity in curvature (it 
>> doesn't give smooth reflections).
>
> ...it doesn't?

No, you get a visible "seam" in the reflection where the cylinder/torus 
(which has constant curvature) meets the planar surface (which has zero 
curvature).  A better way is to use a curved surface where the curvature 
gradually increases from zero up and then back to zero again, rather than 
abruptly changing to a constant value.

See attached POV image, right side is "Rounded_Box" made from boxes and 
cylinders/spheres, left side is a super-ellipsoid, which kind of mimics the 
varying curvature technique for the rounds.  Notice how on the right side 
cube the reflection is sharply broken near all the rounds (especially the 
specular highlight just abruptly stops), the left one is much smoother.

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