On the contrary my friend .. polygon tools work with Sub´Ds surfaces .. for example the best way to work with Sub´Ds is like this ...

Two Pane layout with perspective view in both ... In one you hide Polygons and in the other you hide the Sub´Ds surfaces. The one you are going to work in is the Polygon Proxy one .. however you can´t see it yet since you haven´t selected it, Left-click somewhere in the perspective view and select Polygon from the pop up ... There! You´ve got yourself a polygon to start working with ... watch it update in the Sub´D view

Hope it´s clear ...

(by the way: remember to actually create a sub´d surface though .. )