>sculpt
>set up 4-point even lighting
>quad remesher
>cut low poly in half
>unwrap
>mirror
>bake high poly diffuse and AO to low poly
>save diffuse and AO image
>open in photoshop, set AO layer to multiply, merge layers
>reapply to low poly as single texture
>???
>profit
I think I finally found a fucking workflow that lets me avoid texture painting, relying on photos for textures AND poly modeling all at the same time
God knows if it'll work when I need to do this for a mesh with a lower poly count and have more parts that need texturing, but for now it seems pretty great. I'd say this'll likely end up being a better workflow for PS2 / mid poly but we'll see