Clipping is a common problem actually. I observed game models closely while in-game before, clipping is always there to some degree. So, don't worry too much about it, Ry. It's okay to clip sometimes. (Quite the contradiction to what I said to myself when I worked on this, but still) XD
And yes, I'm perfecting my 3D skill to create animation/game-ready models. So low-poly, good topology, and good uv mapping + texturing.
You can have high poly models in animation (which is mostly why I do that because I like insane amounts of detail, see my particle hair XD). Games yeh probably want to be as low as possible but even then game engines seem to be allowing for higher levels of detail these days (or so I've heard anyway as I stopped paying attention to game dev stuff centuries ago x_x).
My over the top perfectionism won't allow clipping x_x My current workaround for my skin tight stuff is an offset XD