My edit:
Note that the Nikon D800 has a lot of shadow lattitude, so in a situation like this, you could preserve the glaring cobbles better by underexposure.
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@Waveluke I used your profile as a base for a much more minimalistic approach (no dehaze, no wavelets, no dynamic range compression etc.)
DSC0125.jpg.out.pp3 (12.5 KB)
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Using Darktable 3.0 - I tried to preserve the shadows and the colors… Hard light !
_DSC0125_Maygo99.NEF.xmp (12.9 KB)
Even the exact same 28% downscale pixel count in yours, lol. I downloaded it and did a back and forth comparison, for the fun of it. Funny we have a different definition of minimalist. I tend to use wavelets to add a slight increase in local contrast by default, and use dynamic range compression a lot, but because I use low amounts, to make the image a bit punchier, but not that obvious or detracting, I consider that minimalist.
Reading this thread I tried just to use the color balance module on this, rather difficult image. Just one instance without masking.
_DSC0125.NEF.xmp (5.0 KB)
I think some additional sharpening would be good 
.
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LOL I choose the dornbush/lighthouse image for a good reason: It’s a rather balanced (RAW). Exposure is rather good, no extreme lights/darks etc.
Not bad at all, considering!
I came to the same conclusion: You can’t adequately sharpen with the cb module.
This one using the brush tool of ART_DSC0125-art-2.jpg.out.arp (158.0 KB)
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