What command do I use to render polygons only, so I can see what's adding so much to my wpoly in a relatively simple room?

If you're running in software mode, you can use "r_drawflat 1". Note that it will only work in a single-player (i.e. non-lan) environment. So use "map youmap.bsp" rather than starting a server.

If you're running in OpenGl mode (not sure about D3D), you can use gl_wireframe. Set it to 1 to draw everything in wireframe, or set it to 2 to only draw the polies the engine can "see".