As far as I know, sketchup will NOT import text legibly from AutoCAD.
I think a one-time work around is to explode the text in autocad (not very pretty linework) and then try importing. Again it won't be very pretty, but maybe useful for reference as you model and apply materials.

I only render to show materials and oftentimes reflection of light. The "weight" of materials is important to me and a rendering helps convey that to a client.
Otherwise, sketchup provides a nice visualization tool for the geometries and how materials come together. Tracking a reveal through 10,000 S.F. is difficult enough, but to actually SEE and make visually informed decisions based on how it looks within a space is critical!