You know, if a model can be reduced to polygons, as the NURBS model was, it can certainly be reduced manually whilst retaining most of the shape. I'm not sure you needed to start over completely...
Actually, he did. NURBS is a great industry tool when it comes to modeling complex, flowing shapes and you need to export them to .step or something similar, and have CNC machines work with it. Mainly because it's based on mathematical curves, rather than polygons. When you convert, the automatic process doesn't leave you enough control over where each poly is, and this is completely irrelevant with actual 3d design. It's extremely relevant with game modeling. I should know, as I've actually done both professionally
Sure, it's possible to clean up a NURBS converted poly model, but in the end it's faster and more efficient to make one from scratch. There's a very good reason why you use NURBS when it comes to manufacturing, and a very good reason why it's pretty much never used in this type of game modeling. It's inefficient and in the end you end up doing exactly what rhettro did - start a poly based model from scratch.