No, It can’t ! Have you seen anything that much UE4 in their upcoming features ? so they have physics materials and global illumination, having a good foundation doesn’t necessarily means a good system. UE4 looks out of the BOX, and if you have to work too hard and write shaders or what ever to make it look as close ( and no one have reached UE4 quality or even UE3 with unity so far ), you might just go and build your own engine.
And you ask why i think he goes for the free version ? I donno, 1500$ maybe, for indie developer, is a lot.