R.G. Loc: Scotland

When you say "...all of your edits..." you must be referring to the adjustments left by Lightroom's Auto Tone tool in the HDR Merge section. I find that Auto Tone gives a reasonable middle-of-the-road starting point for further editing.

I think you're pointing out that a simpler approach to editing produces acceptable results. One of the points of this particular image is that it's amenable to strong editing. Or put another way, this thread was all about using tasteful and carefully considered amounts of over-cooking - which in my opinion has produced exceptional results from all concerned.

I agree with you that there's something to be said for keeping editing simple. As well as Lightroom I also have Elements, but I hardly ever use it because Lr gives basic tools that can achieve most things (I never do composites). Thanks for sharing your opinion.