John,
since the thread is marked Raw Therapee and relates to raw processing, let me share some thoughts on HDR processing technicques I was figuring out for HDR RAWs. Though, I use the Darktable instead of the raw Therapee, it won’t make much of a difference due to the following quite generic conclusion I’ve come up with
I was evaluating reference procedure, just for my self, to get the best of my HDRs encompassing contrast and vivid color rendering. Firstly I looked into HDR tone mapping, then after getting poor results I employed the levels and the tone curve that provided contrast yet preserving most colors. Then, after watching a lot of videos on raw processing of landscapes for good colors and contrast rendering (those are two basic factors that give your landscape shot a catchy look), I summarized that the best results were obtained with no levels or tone mapping at all. Pro photographers who showcased their processing used, first of all, just used shadows/highlights and blacks/whites modules, regardless of to balance dark and light image zones. While the tone curve was also applied, it was rather post-shadows/highlights, very secondary module, at the stage where the shot already looked quite punchy and haze-free thus giving it an extra contrast. Also, to my surprise, this method preserved a lot of initially vivid colors as well.
I can post results of my own experiment with that method which proved it works if you would be interested