HDRI lighting (interiors especially)?

[Builtdown]

Hi,

I´m a veteran in arch viz rendering, but I have never really understood the concept of HDRI lighting. I see many times that great 3D artists use HDRI in interior scenes also.
I understand the HDRI lighting in exterior shot when rendering ie. cars or something, when you want realistic reflections on objects. Also the HDRI sky can pruduce different atmospheres etc.

But with interior scenes?
Let´s say I have a room with one window and there is no need to show the sky from the window. And you don´t need sky reflecting on chrome objects or anything inside the room.
I have understood that the HDRI map is supposed to have set as a "sky dome" so it can´t really light a room, expect from the window that is an opening for the light, right?
So if I use the Octane Environment Daylight-node and set the sun shining from the window as powerfylly as I want, and with the wanted daytime, with turbidity and wanted sun direction, shouldn´t I get the same lightning results as with HDRI but a lot easier, with faster rendering and probably with less noise?
Why would I want to use HDRI with interior scenes?

Thanks!

[bepeg4d]

Hi Builtdown,
in my opinion, there is not a precise rule in this aspect, but depends on your needs, mood, ecc.
In general, I always prefer to work with boths, Daylight for precise control of direct illumination, and HDRI (+ emitters) for indirect illumination/reflections/refractions.
But sometimes, with only one HDRI I can have the effect that I was searching for, while sometimes only Daylight is the right solution.
ciao beppe