We do agree and in the context of this thread, proper exposure is subjective, which is my point, ETTR is not a fit all solution which your sentence
affirms by make a choice as to what is important. In the sunlit/ shadow scene mentioned as a thought exercise, the important highlights would change, the exposure for ETTR on the eyeballs of a person in shadow would blow the highlights of the sunlit areas and that’s fine. It’s probably not fine to ETTR (IMHO) on the whole scene and then pull the shadow areas up which would result in more noise and lower contrast on the person in the scene.
There is no correct exposure for the midtones, just like Mr Adam’s choosing to develop a neg for the most details in all areas by pulling (mainly) and getting a soft neg, it’s all a choice keeping final result in mind.