There is something wrong with your highlight reconstruction.
Strange… I opened the raw file and applied your last pp3 and got this:
Still blown out but not bad, and totally different from your jpg.
And if I check Highlight reconstruction I get this:
Are you editing the raw file (.DNG)?
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@DxO-user also open my pp3 (below), go to the Advanced Tab and look for the Wavelets section.
There you have much more control on noise reduction.
My settings in there are just an example of a very quick tweak to reduce noise, but FAR from good, just a starting point. I couldn’t reduce almost any luminance noise, but, at least, some chrominance noise has gone.
CRW_4166.DNG.pp3 (11.1 KB)
Yes , I’m editing the RAW file - But I have to use local adjustment to get control over the blown out highlights in the melon.
As a newbie to RT , I have to use to this kind of adjustment.
If not using RAW , I have to save as a tiff and do the rest in Affinity ( have never used Affinity in this forum)
@gadolf
My first take with PhotoFlow.
I have been testing some experimental tone mapping code on your image, and this is the best I could achieve so far… I will add the photoflow .pfi file once the new code is committed on github.
P.S: I made no attempt to reduce the noise for the moment…
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@Carmelo_DrRaw Looks promising.
Glad to see that my watermelon can be useful to your development process 
Sorry, what is this screen about?
I really don’t know Rawtherapee…
I have made 3 control spots ( appears as an elipse )
Inside each elipse there is a small round circle. Hit this small circle and you can move the control spots up/down - right/left to your likings.
In this case I used thwe control spots to adjust the exposure …
Don’t mind the straight line.
And what would the result be?
Taken from another picture , but I think You know what I mean
Exposure
Vibrance
Local adjustment comes in handy. Once you get used to it - you can’t live without it
@gadolf, fellow users, watermademoiselles {cap’s off}
Best result I managed was rawpeeparis’ sacrificing natural looking (contrast) highlights to a Log munch scream puddle in exchange. Where is? I could swear I’ve been there.
CRW_4166_1800_RT_v2.jpg.out 2.pp3.zip (4.2 KB)
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This was hard to decipher 
and it fits perfectly!
I also didn’t like the resulting geometric shape after highlights recovery, so I choose to find a half term and reduced a little the recovery effects. (now looking at my edit I realize I should have reduced it more, the shape is still there)
As for the location, well, it’s the Glória neighbourhood, a small and very crazy and exotic place in RIo (but you have to live here to fully realize how strange it is, it’s not so evident at first sight). On Sundays, cars and buses give place to this market. So this is Feira da Glória (Glória’s market).
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Butterworth bandpass, unusual curves, warping and odd layer blending.
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Hi.
Is it my impression or are you going less abstract in 2019? 
Definitely not!
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Nothing like watermelon on a hot day… but it is cold where I live. Lately, I have been burnt out, so my processing has been a struggle. Lots of steps this time! Did some dodging of the watermelon in GIMP, which I rarely do. My dodging skills are non-existent. 
1. PhotoFlow → HL mode (blend) → AMaZE → linear Rec2020 (no clipping) → tone mapping → reduce oog (curve 0→1) → linear sRGB 32f (one with tone mapping [A], the other without [B])
2. gmic → crop (1.5:1 A B) → filter pixels (A B)
3. enfuse → merge (contrast A B; probably should have chosen exposure)
4. gmic → remove alpha → filter pixels → filter noise (hot pixels, guided)
5. pnmclahe → enhance contrast
6. gmic → boost shadows (curve) → adjust brightness, contrast (curves)
7. GIMP → dodge (select dark areas of watermelon, blend)
8. gmic → increase chroma (curve) → sharpen (LoG) → resize
Zoom 100% and enjoy!
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