If you’re talking about the zone system, then there is absolutely a correct exposure, and a lot of other things that need to be correct in order to produce a film negative with the desired contrast.
You’re mixing up a lot of theory here, film and digital don’t work the same way.
In your original thought experiment, you didn’t tell us if the scene dynamic range exceeds that of the camera, if the photographer wants to preserve as much detail as possible, if clipping is or isn’t acceptable, thus its hard to complete this thought experiment and you’re getting a lot of answers.