Yes, I noticed that noise too. Seemed strange that the coarse details did that? I like it better without the grain merges. I wonder if there is a better way to tune the wavelet decompose so that the residuals and details are blurred just enough for the right pop?
Did you blur the details?
For me, using the opacity on the wavelet scale level to regulate the amount of pop worked fine.
Ok, I think I’ve figured it out. I needed to tune the wavelet decompose procedure in G’MIC first. Here’s a screen capture of how I did that:
And here is the resulting image with the residual merged in “dodge” mode, and the two coarsest levels of details merged with “grain merge”:
I think the trick was making the extracted details more “blurry”.
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Cross post! Yes, I think it had to do with “blurring” the coarse details before merging.
Interesting, the dodge instead of color mode changes the effect totally.
Here’s your picture with my recipe:
Ok, in G’MIC, Details > Split Details [Layers], I selected 9 as the number of scales, 18 as the base scale, and 9 as the detail scale. Run the filter, merge the residuals with "dodge’ blending at 30% opacity, and the coarsest level of details also with “dodge” blending and 45% opacity. Here’s what it looks like (I think best of my attempts so far):
Still some noise in the blacks, but the picture was taken with my cell phone, which is pretty noisy. I think it’s an acceptable compromise for the result.
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Oh interesting! Yes, I see the difference immediately. Yours is more subdued, whereas mine are all pretty “in your face.” Interesting indeed!
This was your cellphone!!! 
Awesome!
Your last one is the best.
Thank you! 
It’s a google Nexus 5x. The camera on the 5x is actually startlingly good!