You're right, Dennis.
At the end of the day, I have no idea what the plug-ins are doing to my image data. If I know the data is there (or, even if I don't), then, all I have to do is apply traditional levels and curves and saturation with a few contrast masks. It's very quickly evident whether there is any point in continuing or stopping and just lamenting about taking a better photograph.
Allow me, if I may, to go on a tirade, re: third party software. This is somewhat off topic, and, I apologise for the rant. It's a slow afternoon at work and I feel like getting this off my chest. I did the same to Troy a few days ago via email.
Software like ACR/Lightroom does nothing for your photographs. Neither Canon, nor Nikon, nor anyone else has ever revealed their proprietory RAW format specifications to Adobe (and, why would they? Nikon charges big bucks for their CaptureNX software. Canon's is free). Therefore, they've had to reverse engineer the format. What you end up seeing in ACR/Lightroom is what Adobe thinks your sensor captured, and, not what your sensor actually captured. Your camera manufacturer developed the file format, and, it only makes sense that their software (as kludgy as image processing software by hardware manufacturers is) is the only solution worthy of interpreting the data.
To see this in practise, simply open a Canon RAW of your best/worst image in Digital Photo Professional, and, then, open the same files in ACR/Lightroom. Watch in awe as ACR/Lightroom apes the interpretation of your beautifully captured data.
It kind of irks me when I process astrophotographs taken with my Canon gear knowing that what's ending up on my screen is not what my sensor actually captured due to using software not designed to interpret the data. However, I am somewhat comforted in the knowledge that because the data ends up going through so much massaging (calibration) that the original data would not make much difference.
End rant. Feel free to crucify me.
Regards,
Humayun
P.S. Digital Photo Professional is awesome.