The other tool I like on Photolab 5 is the DXO Smart lightinh which is a bit like Luminar AI's AI Adjust which lowers highlights and raises shadows but DXO seems to lose the halos you could get on Luminar AI.

Would be worth watching some Youtube vids on Photolab 5 Elite.

I used to use Nik Viveza and Nik Silver efex pro and loved it how you could local edit with control points and that is something DXO have transferred over from Nik to Photolab 5 Elite but made it even better. If you are wanting to simplify your workflow and capitalize on the tweaking that Photolab 5 Elite can do plus take advantage of U-Point technology (the Control Line looks really interesting here) I would consider Photolab 5 Elite. If you are really super happy with Lightroom and feel very comfortable using it as an editor then I would go with Pure Raw 2 and Lightroom. Having all those virtual edits did my head in so I now have a RAW file, usually in the case of panos etc export to an interim TIFF then create a jpeg then just keep the RAW as my negative and the jpeg as my print deleting the TIFF's I'm a little biased here as have never really gelled with Lightroom. Do you think DXO Photolab 5 is worth trying over the combination of pureraw and Lightroom Bussty?

Dxo photolab 5