I love the quick drying poly as well, mostly because I lack the patience.
I tend to use a fairly simple method with my poly.......very thin coats using a foam brush followed by light steel wool and then cleaned with a tack cloth just prior to next coat. And I can usually get 2-3 coats per brush (depending on the project size) by dropping it into a sealed sandwich bag between coats.
I would think 5-10 coats should be more than enough to give you years of beauty and durability.