I'm not sure it's fair to describe those as hacks. Those techniques are also used for animated movies, which take many CPU-years to render. Those "hacks" are used even when artist have huge amounts of hardware, no real-time constraints, and need extremely high quality.
Techniques other than raytracing have an artistic place, not merely a pragmatic one.
Techniques other than raytracing have an artistic place, not merely a pragmatic one.