Making a preset suited for your camera (and your own idea of a image) and set this one as default for imported files is a very easy way to create a good base for easy export.
As i said the dxo standard is a middle of the road fits all setting. And the blacks and highlights are compressed by the smartlighting setting.
To understand smartlighting you need to use the box (face reqocnition) modes.
Get an image an make some boxes, move those boxes around to highlights or shadows or points of interrest like a face or your focuspoint.
See what happens with the overall tonality of the histogram and thus image.
I suspect you are used to LightRoom.
They do a lot “under the hood” which makes every image “the same as any other shooter puts in” there auto preset is pritty and neat but it doesn’t show the potential which is in the rawfile.
Give it some time to adjust your point of view.
And ive wrote a contrast how to use all kinds of contrast adjustment. Which shows that knowing how does help alot.