I am on team fix lighting first :).
While materials do need work, the most accurate model of a real material looks fake in a lighting situation that doesnt follow certain rules.
A change of camera angle and composition or storytelling will make for a better image, but do not help for a photorealistic render.
In the real world a porsche can park in front of a cheap motel and a photographer can take weird angles and framings of that. The photo he takes will look real anyways.
As in any simulation scale does matter. Lighting has scale too. the relationship in light intensity between different lightsources is of utmost importance.
To get a feel for that the best exercise one can do is to go out and take photos with a camera in full manual mode.