Thanks John, yes all of this does help.
Really... I am still greatly confused by this one off experience. Has all my exports from LR (sRGB obviously) been different to the version I created with the RAW 14bit DNG file that I was working with at the time? Am I just dense and only now have noticed a difference? Is it because this particular image is really bias towards exploiting the pros of PhotoPro vs highlighting the weakness of sRGB and that this is why only now I am (noticing) bringing this up... (I thought perhaps it was a bug with recent LR release or something at first...)
99% of every image I take is to end up as a Jpg, either for sites like Flickr, Facebook business page, Instagram or as Jpgs for clients. The other 1% might be that I don't necessarily care about the Export as a Jpg but use the Print Module in LR to make a print (a real life Jpg lol, or in this case a real life DNG?)...
I always shoot RAW, or at least 99% of the time shoot RAW. Switching to shooting to Jpg with my camera does have its benefits, faster fps, better buffer limits etc, but I am aware of the dangers in doing so (White Balance better be correct at the time, less data to work with for highlight/shadow recovery etc).
But now I am starting to rethink my entire editing process. Should I be loading the RAW 14bit files into LR and then making important exposure adjustments to take advantage of that initial (superior over 8bit Jpg) RAW data. But then once that stage is complete should I be toggling out of 16bit/ProPhoto and into 8bit/sRGB sooner rather than later and continue, moving onto the edit process that deals more with the 'colours' and 'artistic' aspects, just for the sole purpose of WYSIWYG for when it finally ends up as a Jpg? (I don't like surprises!)
What is going through my head now is why am I wasting time editing in one space when I will eventually lose that 'look' when showing the work to clients or internet sites. With the above OP example, I could for example push the reds and magenta more and get an Export that more likely results in looking like what I currently intended. It will (of course) look more ghastly in LR/PS (overdone in it's ProPhoto 16bit workspace), but the Exported sRGB will actually be 'cooler' and resemble more my original intent.
But I can't work like that... I can't edit in one place thinking its going to be the same when actually not, and then second guess things. From your chart above it seems the benefit of using ProPhoto is that it looks nice for users, in our programs and our nice fancy monitors, but how is that relevant really in the grand scheme of things? Photos end up being Jpgs! Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved before? hah! Maybe not?
FWIW I can relate to the the photographers work being judged indifferently to clients. Just the fact my monitor is calibrated but the client is looking at my work on a non calibrated screen (smartphone even) can throw up arguments and points that are not valid as we are each talking from different canvas's...
It's almost like I need to ask a client what they will be looking at my images on, and then calibrate my monitor to being the same as theirs so that when I edit it will look the way I what/intend on their device/screen. I almost need to edit twice, once for me (that will look good for my screen and I know it will print well) and once for client (their screen etc)..
