Thanks @Wolfgang - I hadn’t even noticed spot mode for Smart Lighting!
SmartLighting spot mode is a bit tricky. I had some cases when minor change in the rectangle(s) size caused big change in the picture, without any obvious logic behind it. For some photos you might end-up experimenting for several minutes before getting what you want. Start with marking sufficiently large highlight area(s) and perhaps some shadows. Sometimes just marking the highlights will do the job. I gave up trying to reverse-engineer what it does under the hood, because the logic and some internal thresholds are impossible to guess.