Rich,
It slows down rendering times and when you add a displacement map it will render slower. It wasn't terribly slow for these and I only did 100 passes with a Presto setting in Thea Render.
Blender does have a lot of these features "out of the box" if not with a plug-in or Grasshopper. I got sidetracked late this spring when I was finally getting around to learn Blender using the well known doughnut tutorial by Blender Guru. I even got a small Inspiroy tablet for the brushes. Blender can seem a daunting at first given all the options that are available but of course that requires more focus on my part.
Sketchup still seems a better option for straight ahead architectural work for now. That and my 23 year old Autocad ADT 3.3 that I'm still using for the bulk of my freelance work. Anything organic though and Blender would be the better option.
Glad you like the shag carpet. Many a tiny screw or spring were lost in those even into the 1980s.