@smilebags@bitinn yeah I don't really understand why couldn't they just subtract this from "iffy" diffuse reflectances or apply some soft contrast to them (common tech art hack when converting legacy materials 10y ago :) lift black but everything above a threshold - apply some ad-hoc S-curve).
As @troy_s mentioned, people really need to stop confusing material properties like reflectances with "color"; even radiance is not color. Color is in the brain, not in electromagnetic waves or atoms.