@Underexposed: Just had a look at your xmp and you should have a look at a hue based parametric mask for local contrast 1 to make the transition from intense darker blue to light (almost white) blue a lot softer.
Admittedly I did not put a lot of time fine-tuning it but I’m getting rather decent result with the following numbers:
channel: h
input : 228, 235, 272 277 (polarity inverted)
feathering radius: 134