How to get the best raw exposure, part 2

FastRawViewer Preferences -> "Image Display" -> "Ignore exposure correction/baseline exposure in linear mode" - check.
FastRawViewer Preferences -> "Exposure" -> "Exposure adjustments affect OverExposure display" - uncheck.
Display the image and press Shift-L. This will help to assess what is truly clipped in raw data and what a raw converter will deal with as the source data.
The result:

More on this here:
www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/fastrawviewer1-7-new-view-mode

That's not about exposure, which I think is a topic, but yes, focus stacking is what I often use.

Depends on FastRawViewer settings.
One can switch off "Exposure adjustments affect OverExposure display" on FastRawViewer Preferences - "Exposure" tab

I've always thought the people you dub "Real Worlders" are not people who distain technicalities or think that learning by doing is always superior, but rather people who realise there is often a gap between theory and practice.

For example, theory often idealises situations by ignoring inconvenient complications. Or theory yields very precise results that some people get too attached to without taking into account that there is often a lot of slop in the real world. For example, I see little point to obsessing over that last 5%, if your own working practice rarely achieves 50% precision! (Apologies if I've got my precision and accuracy reversed, I can never remember which is which). Extreme technicalities are perhaps important to those working on the bleedin edge but maybe not so much for the more journeyman worker.

The more extreme characterisation of the anti-science approach probably does exist, but less visibly than the bodge job majority, IMO.

Nothing, he did nothing.

What happened is that Donald didn't switch "Exposure adjustments affect OverExposure display" off, and not to push any agenda, but because he isn't yet familiar with the software.

FastRawViewer Preferences -> "Exposure" -> "Exposure adjustments affect OverExposure display" on/checked, OE+corr statistics shows the result of hidden Adobe exposure correction applied. As this hidden correction, in this case (camera model / ISO setting), is about +0.35 EV, one has 4.2 K green pixels indicated as clipped before even applying any manual corrections.

Thanks for the explanation. I have pushed back exposure in FRV to - 3ev and still the magenta clipping highlights still show.

Yes, because clipping is present in the raw data, and no amount of lightness change in FastRawViewer, + or -, will change that.

Then perhaps that particular raw file was actually clipped in the green channel.

Yes, about 2.1 K green pixels are clipped.

my exposure correction was turned off.

I think i understand now, the OE+corr is adobe default correction for my camera + the actual over exposed pixels.

I know. Above, I explained what happened.

Yes, that's correct.

so its 2.1k + adobe correction = 4.2k ?

That's right.

Thank you very much and your patients, it takes a little while to sink in after using the same 2 programs for 15 years and trying to learn something new.

I'm very happy we are moving forward.

Your enmity of theory [about a 100 posts here alone] does not cease to amaze