in otherwords just use texture maps and normal maps for the wiimote

as for your last few questions, if you still have the history i think you can delete that particular node

i dont have Maya in front of me, but if you know which node in the history made the change you don't want, i think you can delete it by right clicking and selecting something like 'delete node'....

i THINK.... actually i dont know if you CAN delete a particular part of the history and undo what it did, you can only modify what it did

if you delete vertices you can just use the split polygon tool to put them back

also if you have two vertices you want to draw an edge between you just use the split polygon tool

just click and drag somewhere on an edge with that vertex and it will snap to the existing one (assuming the threshold is high enough, which it is if you use the default tool settings)
then just do the same with an edge that has the last vertex you want to join to

also a useful tool is the tool that inserts an edge loop (insert edge loop?) as long as Maya can see quads you can insert an entire edge loop from one edge to the opposite edge. click and drag to place, or just double click on an edge and an edge loop appears in the middle of all the quads affected