If you create the mesh in LW then it works fine. But what you mentioned can happen if you import models into LW.

Maybe the importer needs some improving.
But regarding the modeling workflow: I have no idea how you can improve that from the point of view of the user. I do not want to change every normal of every polygon manually. I still want fast control like the cut and paste technique. Smoothing groups like in Max are ancient as well.

But if you have a genius idea to do better then please make a feature request at Newtek. There is an internet form and an email especially for that.

Regards