Brian welcome to the Router Forums.
One thing to remember is 99.99% of the items you cut on the CNC will require cleanup to some degree.
I agree with everyone about the softness of pine being a problem. It will also depend on what kind of pine it is because I used some South American pine to make a jewelry box one time that was really hard. I use select pine from Home Depot and Lowes for some of the items I make but I know I will have additional cleanup after machining. It cuts better than construction grade pine with fewer fuzzies but is more expensive. I also use poplar and it cuts cleaner but still has some cleanup but not as much. I also use what is called White (fur)wood for the color and it is even worse than construction grade pine about fuzzies but I want the white color so I'm willing to do the extra cleanup needed.
I would rather carve Cherry, Maple, Walnut, Oak, Lacewood, Rosewood, Movingue, Yellowheart, Purpleheart, and the list goes on. The best carvings I have done, with the least amount of cleanup, have been hard exotics with high oil content. All of the items I carved using Cocobolo have come off the CNC almost polished but the price is too high to justify using it except on very special projects.
As far as speeding up the feed rate it will depend on the capabilities of your machine. if it has a lot of flex then you need to make sure you stay within its limits. If it is a good tight machine then you probably won't have any problem using a higher feed rate. Feed rates depend on a lot of factors, machine tightness, spindle RPM, bit design, bit deflection, bit chip load, how much of the cutting edge you are actually using, and material being machined.
The best way to find out what feed rate to use for each bit on your machine would be to use a feed rate calculator to get you close, then set up a test board to see how your bit carves at different rates based on the calculations.