Mapping looks loads better, aye.
I've just had a quick look at the model in Max... here's why you've got so many polys:
All that vertical detail in the cone and the cylinders is unnecessary... you've about five times the polys you need. Look for the spinner called "height segments" when you're starting out with primitives... yes, sometimes you do need them (if you're face mapping, for example, you might want to add more detail that way) but for something like this... they're probably not necessary.
The other way to reduce polys is to use fewer sided primitives to start with. For the main base of the thing, and the cone and top bits... sure, you need the detail, so 18-sided cylinders (for example) are probably worthwhile. In the railing, though, you could get away with a 4-sided or even 3-sided torus. Same for the support posts. Again it's just one of those things you get used to as you get more experienced - working out what needs the detail and what doesn't.
This is an extremely quick mock-up of the same kind of shape without the extraneous detail. Polycount is something like 900 instead of 2000+ :
Keep on extrudin' :)
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