Your not the only one as a LR user. It seems that LR has a very sophisicated auto modes which a lot of people like as look. (there is a old thread from a forum member who had the same issue.
Just scroll though this it’s a search and journey for things which seems to be done in LR as a breeze to see if it’s also possible in DxOpl v1. At the time.
Do you have filmpack?
Then you have advanged sliderset.
When you turndown highlights agressive in selective tone the white got “greyisch” so use both.
Contrast and tone highlight slider say -19 and -19 instead of -40 on tone.
Second, use smart lighting only in box selective mode. (the tool to set a box of interest around something in the image.) place one box on a dark place and one on a bright place.
When pushing exposure up the smartlighting is working to keep the image brightnes\lightness inside the DR of the selected parts in the boxes.
Vibrance does help to make the image more pop. I have my personal preset a +18 al the time.
Clearview helps to add microcontrast and thus pop into the image.
Like LR is just give you a auto modes (lot of things are done without your controll or knowing which can be a pain if you don’t want it.)
in DxO you can make your own automodes. Called a personal preset.
If you can provide the rawfile people can give it a go and even post the dopfile so you can see how it’s done.
Remember smartlighting is killing contrast because it extend the existing dynamic range. And thus stretching the tonecurve of the image tonal property’s.
About the tonecurve see this example:
also a methode to create contrast.
what i am trying to say is look further then the “basic sliders” .
DxO is powerfull because you can use different paths in full control to a endresult.
and if you have a solution for something which you can use more often: create a (partial) preset and name it " sunny days" or dull images or " for more pop"
And when you have a preset which others can use you can post it here:
enjoy your journey of learning 