I have to agree with you entirely. Second Life is a game platform used to simulate a literal second life to your real one. By that means you'd think people would follow basic game development practices. Upon my return a month ago I came here with questions on efficiency. I got a lot of good answers and frankly I am pleased with the results.
I went from this
To the now final form of my project
All this accomplished because someone actually gave me a visual idea of what the model "should" look like. Sadly they appear to have deleted their comment from my post. I would have quoted them with a glorious thank you for that image they provided.
Basically the primary model which is on the Highest LOD is around 304 poly and 262 vertices. Using the image they provided me I made the medium and low LOD's the same however the model used is 26 poly and 20 vertices with the lowest being nothing but a 2D cutout in the shape of the model. It sits at 8 poly and 10 verts, upon doing all this extra work. I get the satisfying feeling of that incredibly low LI and display ratio. So whoever showed me that image I truly do thank you for it.