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I tend to agree with Mike on the image, though I struggle to accept purple stars these days. Even with Hubble images as they become a distraction if not managed correctly.
Paul, correct me if I'm wrong but I think you've applied the purple halo reduction globally across the image. You need to use masking to ensure you keep the nebula saturation intact.
You can either use the basic colour range tool, feather the selection and apply the setting. The colour range tool makes it hard to get the real faint stars however. My preferred method is to create a selection from the real data. This is very precise as you'll be able to select all bright and dim stars though more involved. I think this came from Russ Croman.
Make a grayscale copy of the image. I call this image #2.
High-pass filter image #2 with a radius of one pixel.
Apply a Gaussian blur to image #2 with a radius of one pixel.
Invoke Image->Adjust->Threshold.
Adjust the Threshold Level one click at a time until just the stars are white and everything else is black.
In the original image, in the Channels Palette, create a new channel. Name it "Stars." Choose "color indicates masked areas."
Paste image #2 into this channel.
Make just the RGB channels visible (i.e. make the Stars channel invisible).
Discard image #2.
In the original image, invoke Select->Load Selection. Choose the Stars channel you just created.
Invoke Select->Expand and expand the selection by a few pixels (e.g., three).
Done. You are now ready to selectively apply any fixes to the stars - bright or dim.
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