Well you can create anything with edge modelling but building wrinkles and whatnot is going to be a real pain and cost you a lot more time than sculpting.
The pores should be specular, normal or bump maps, you don’t model those.
It is possible to create highly detailed characters without sculpting but the reason people prefer sculpting over edge modelling is the time-saving factor as well as the accuracy you can achieve with it.
If you really want to avoid sculpting, I guess all you can do is slowly work towards your final character by edge modelling until it satisfies you.
There is also the option of using displacement maps, but then again you have to paint those and if you do that, you might as well just sculpt it.
Tbh, I’m kind of afraid of sculpting too, because the few times I have tried it nothing worked out the way I wanted it to, but it is something I feel like I won’t get around. I will tackle that a later point, I have to.
