Yea there are primarily three 'hand painted' styles: -Diffuse only without highpoly -Diffuse only with highpoly baked in -Diffuse as focus with normal/spec/etc. for additional effects like shadows (Guilty Gear Xrd)
That probably won't quite answer your question, but studios relying on "diffuse only" painted assets increasingly do so by working from baked sculpts anyways, as it is in many cases faster (especially when designs are complex and detailed), provides fantastic results and makes everything consistent. The sculpts / high poly…