Looking at your images i say looking good and in some you can use local adjustments to bringout some detail in the shadow.
Flying bird, shot against sky so wings are dark. This is a excelent oppertunity go use controlpoint on the bird to light up the detailsof the wings you shot. (it’s your object of interest so lighting it up doesn’t ruin the autencisentie , doens’t make it unreal.
If your memory saw that detail looking yourself you can bring out that in your image.
If you did saw only dark not. The viewers brain would be picking up the unreal view as HDR look then.(johanna’s beach shot example shows that. Sand and rocks straight in the sun.)
Same by the treetruncks those wierd forms screaming for microcontrast localadjustment clearview. Just try it and see if it’s enhancing or not.
Best advise i can give you is: Make your image as liked then use Virtual Copy’s to experiment om the details the artistic “enhancements”.
Export those all as jpegs and view on larger screen like a smart tv or back on your monitor. By flipping back and forward you see the effects and can decide if it’s better or worse.
And “over processing” aka beond natural look, doesn’t alway’s be bad.
Sometimes lead the eye to something by extra contrasting or blurring non interesting parts is part of your idea of what you want to show us.