To be honest, I also have a particular workflow too.
Likewise, I do also find the Vibrancy level with Auto Enhance a bit too much. The effect is OK, but just more than I prefer for my personal taste in what I’m looking for in my adjustments.
To be fair, I haven’t found a single app where its Auto Enhance feature does give a perfect final image. As Nik has mentioned in past tutorials, it can be handy as a starting point though.
Personally I prefer a more ‘natural’ finish to my initial adjustments, so nearly always want to turn down some of the adjustments.
I’m always experimenting with different adjustment techniques, but currently it comprises of the following.
Apply any cropping, straightening, or lens adjustments.
I may add a preset (such as a Provia LUT for my Fuji images).
Then hit the Auto Enhance button (WB off, Levels on).
My next step is to set Luminance mode for Levels, and reset Vibrancy to 0, and adjust Saturation instead. I feel this gives that more natural look I’m after.
I just find that the Luminance mode, along with Saturation, works better when you have a lot of solid colour in an image – such as areas of green, with grass or trees etc. it’s especially better for solid reds.
Then it’s whatever other adjustments might be needed.
Of course it’s each to their own, and it’s not really practical to make the Auto Enhance work perfectly for everyone. There’s also the danger of overwhelming the user with too many options, and you might as well not bother using Auto Enhance at all.
However, the idea of having an Auto button on certain adjustment panels is appealing. That could be more useful, especially with the exposure based settings. Some of them do already have one of course (Levels and WB for example).
Although it shouldn’t matter what order adjustments are made in a modern Raw workflow, the practicality of it means that it does actually matter. Many adjustments are still dependent on other adjustments that are made.
Cheers
Andy