Agree with you. Zremesher is fine for quick retopo and in some cases the result of it could be OK to use for final shots, but personally, for the most part I do retopology manually. Regardless Zremesher guides and a bunch of settings it is still hard to get exact topology you need. Plus it has some bad tendencies such as creating spirals (even regardless your guides) and a weird ways to cap the circular topology. So if you try to modify its result later in poly-modeling software it might turn into big headache.
The proper workflow depends on your final target. When I have just a little time or the model would be placed far away from camera I simply decimate it. If I need very clean result and lots of flexibility (having sub-d levels in my rendering program, perfect UV’s etc) I export concept sculpt to favorite modeling package (in my case it is Blender) and build a whole new model with perfect topology, supporting edges etc, using sculpt as a guide. And yeah, it might take a while.
Creasing vs supporting edges loops. These are just two types of workflows. In first one you get more even topology, but to create nice smooth bevels you will need to subdivide your model more. With supporting edges you add additional geometry along the beveled edges, so one or two subdivisions would be enough to make a piece look good. So the rule of thumb is: if you have a simple smooth shape - use supporting edges, but if you plan to sculpt additional details or scratches on it (which would require adding five or six subd-levels), rather use creasing, otherwise this additional geometry from supporting edges will impact your polygon count.
As for importing crease edges - I don’t use maya for modeling, but if I remember correct, there should be a plugin for that. But regardless, you can always mark your crease edges straight in maya, so not a big deal here.
