Someone at one of my teaching sessions asked if you have managed to get PhotoLab to replace a polarising filter.
Here is an image, taken without a polarising filter…
… and here is the same scene taken with the filter…
Thoughts?
Would like to see how it replaces polarizer when it’s about to eliminate reflections, like reflection on water to see under surface …
(It of course can’t recreate what has not been recorded).
Careful @JoPoV „replacing“ is not „imitating“ 
On e could imitate a cuckoo‘s call, and still suck in flying like one or building a decent cuckoo‘s nest (not to mention sitting in it comfortably)
As people with raw-editors we imitate a lot. I was surprised in the first couple of weeks I used PL5 back then and wanted to get rid of too much density of November fog over a river. The fog was still there, but I could see the stones on the ground after using a big dose of „clear view“.
And a polarizer doesn‘t effect all reflections, no matter what. From the department „what they didn‘t tell me before I bought one“:
- Higher sky saturation depends on the angle I‘m aiming my camera relative to the sun
- Homogenous sky saturation becomes more difficult the wider the lens is
- Reflections can be reduced depending on angle of the camera towards the plane with reflections and depending on the material. No effect on metal but on plastic, glass, glossy paint coatings.
- On spherical or cylindrical or uneven surfaces in general some reflections remain „unkillable“ as their orientation between lens axis and light source causing the reflection is constantly changing…
Now, since a polarizer is also rather picky what it does and what not, it‘s less complicated than I thought to imitate some of it‘s effects.
For me real use is above water.
Other solutions can often be found fo sky without loosing 2 stops.
There may be a lot more uses to consider, but I have found two main uses for polarizing filters:
1 - darkening a blue sky in color photography, and
2 - minimizing or removing reflections on metal surfaces, such as cars.
By removing light, the camera exposure needs to be adjusted for the lower amount of light. And the best way I have found to use them is by looking through them as the angle is adjusted (sky darker, or reflections gone).
As to PhotoLab, I’m pretty sure it could make for a darker blue sky, but I see no way Photolab could remove reflections as well as the actual filter. I used to use them a lot, but now my lenses are larger, and I haven’t yet bought larger filters.
From the web:
Polarizers are placed in front of your camera lens, and work by filtering out sunlight which has been directly reflected toward the camera at specific angles . This is beneficial because the remaining light is often more diffuse and colorful, but it also requires a longer exposure time (since light has been discarded).
You shouldn’t believe everything you read on the web, the explanation you quote is not exactly what a polarising filter does. It’s a lot more subtle, it’s not the specific angle at which the light is reflected that’s important, it’s polarisation of the reflected light that’s the key.
At its simplest… When light is reflected from a surface, all the reflected light waves become aligned, all the waves travel from side to side. A polarising filter is like a slotted gate. If the slots are aligned side to side, the reflected waves, which are travelling side to side, can get through. If the filter is rotated 90degrees, the slots are now aligned vertically and the reflected waves can’t get through.
Thus when you fit a polarising filter to your lens and look at a shiny surface, like water, rotating the filter either blocks or allows the reflected light (aka glare) to pass through it. The sky isn’t a shiny surface but it’s the same sort of thing, by blocking light of a certain polarisation it becomes a more intense blue.
If you want a more complete explanation try this page:
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Do polarizing filters really work on metallic surfaces? 
No. The reflection you mention on cars is caused by the car paint.
Hmm, I always thought it was reflected by the mirror-like surface on the paint, likely from wax or something similar? Without the “shine”, there is no reflection. I’ll need to test this. The only polarizing filter I have with me is a Polaroid CPL Filter, “Circular Polarizer Camera Filter” with an attachment mount for my Fuji X100F, but it’s too small for my Nikon lenses.
As to the original question, I think the polarizer filter’s ability to darken a blue sky can be replicated in PhotoLab, but I don’t see any way for Photolab to “dial out” the reflections. (fixed spelling mistake)
Shine (aka glare) is what a polarising filter can reduce.