Sorry to jump in, but looking at these packing plugins, they all seem to do a great job of making your UV's a complete minefield of indistinguishable geometry. Why would anyone want to pack little bits so tightly everywhere? When they can just lay it out themselves in a logical way.
Allego rent-to-own system almost negates the entry barrier altogether, in my opinion. I don't know if 20 bucks a month can be considered a luxury :) Photoshop sub is about the same price and you're never going to own the damned thing, on the other hand! I don't know much about handpainted stuff admitedly, not my cup of…