I understand why it is set up this way and in general I agree with your sentiment about the create a dedicated preset remark (i have created them), but…
This could be made smarter. Instead of blindly turning it on and applying a found compensation it should look for some other factors before doing so. I know of two:
- When shooting in Manual mode.
Exposure compensation doesn’t actually change any of the ISO, aperture or speed settings in this mode. You can, however, use exposure compensation to influence what the lighting meter shows. Without going into details I use this in certain cases. But even if the exposure compensation is set mistakenly/without knowing it it should not trigger anything in the exposure module.
This one should be rather easy to implement: M, A, S and P modes are standardized in the metadata (Exif.Photo.ExposureMode). - When bracketing.
Don’t think I need to explain why.
Although there are fields that show that an image is part of a bracketed series, this one might be a bit harder to implement. These Exposure Bracket Value, ShootingMode and BracketSettings fields (used by Nikon and Panasonic) don’t seem to be very standardized and darktable might not see the difference in some cases. For example: bracketing using my Nikon D750 does not trigger this in the exposure module, but it does when bracketing with my Panasonic LX100M2.
There’s also the possibility that an actual exposure compensation is in place which might (not?) be taken into consideration.
Anyway, just wanted to put this out there.