Are you sure?
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/1294642686/stark-contrast-how-your-camera-copes-with-dynamic-range-capture
in this article:
Citaat:But it’s probably Nikon’s Active D-Lighting system that does the best job of this. It combines up to a 1EV exposure reduction with an adaptive tone curve to give well balanced JPEGs even in high contrast situations.
this is in my eye’s a rawfile effected action!
(if it’s working fine you can using it as a “automated exposure correction tool” i have it active in idyn.)
it will help to prevent blown highlights if you expose as average.
When you go manual just switch to a other customer preset which has it turned off.
That’s what i ment with explore and test. so you can use it to your benefit.
so test your raw-image outcome whit both: D-lighting on and off. see what it brings you.