I make all my own stuff manually. It’s a longer process but I get better results.
an no. If you want to make a shirt you just grab the original, sculpt the shirt onto it so all the weight paint is there, cut how you need and place in engine as a replacement for the chest.
the fact the arms are split already allows for modularity.
It makes changing things on the fly much easier and it is a requirement of the project since it involves armature that can be mixed and matched however the player wants.
With each major joint (hand, lowe arm, upper arm, shoulder, beast/chest, waist, upper leg, lower leg, foot) individualized i have a much easier time making specific assets.
And for the assets that cross between, say a full armor arm that goes from shoulder to arm, you just replace the top with the correct mesh, and hide the lower meshes…
This also allows me to ignore bones if I want to within the weight paint. Say for a gauntlet like item that shouldn’t take to the wrist twist or should only depend on the wrist twist…