May be I cannot fully open my mind.I don't know..
OBJ material editing settings is added to give feels like a Normal material editor requirement.
many other features are more important / awaited
I don't get you. 
The current settings render objects too shiny very often
In the current photo render settings pre defined samples affect scene that produce the white spot. Adding more samples or choosing a different shader instead of mirror shader (or somthing) can reduse it. (:Affect the rendering time. But now users required quality, time is compromisable becuse of advaned technologies in graphics).I forgot the exact setting someware I solved similar issue
. May be the samples settings is not defined in image settingsimage {
resolution x y
aa 0 2
samples 12
filter blackman-harris
}
or in sunsky or IBL settings.
But I should rather start inverting in Yafaray, shouldn't I?
Sorry, complicated English. I don't understant..----------------------------------------
