Another figure done and now the group of figures is getting shipped to the customer. He is going to be thrilled with these. CAS does such a good job mounting figures and their accessories.
If you are looking to get anything graded I highly suggest collectorarchive.com over AFA. You can submit them yourself or find a local store that takes care of the submission for you at no cost.
For a collector the packaging and preservation I would guess are important to the collector. That looks like a nice presentation set-up, and provides protection for the item.
Some collectors love items that are still in the original package while others prefer loose figures. Hard part for any collector is keeping their collection displayed while avoiding damage. Grading does offer a good level of protection for figures and allows loose collectors to show off the figures a little better.
Downside to grading IMO is the cost and added space needed to display your collection. Oh and the LONG wait times to get your items back from the grading companies. It's at least 6 months now unless you want to shell out a "rush fee" of $100 or $200 depending on how fast you want it back.
The nice thing about collecting these days is you have options.
I would imagine it does take time for some of the display work, but like you said, now-a-days there are options for protection and display.