On1+PS Elements or Aurora HDR?! Software for image editing Update

Let me tell you some of my, possibly final, thoughts about purchasing new software. If you're not aware, I've done a full blog post on Wordpress.com about this: https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/47375198/posts/2254540104 ; but despite this blog post, there is still possibly much to learn, and here are some things I've learned since making that post. The feature known in On1 Camera RAW known as Dynamic Contrast would be a great advantage to me, because in Adobe Elements 15 I don't get this option; the best I can do as far as I've known, is to create many layers, each one having a different degree of the High Pass filter applied to it. But in Photoshop Elements 15, the worst aspect is the fact that during or before the process of creating each layer, I'd have to do lots of guesswork to make it look close to ideal; and if I don't do it correctly, I can likely end up with too much contrast in a photo. Aurora can result in incredible photos, and initially I wanted to do a pair-up with Aurora & Elements+ Add-on to my Elements program. However, after doing some research on focus stacking in Elements+ there seems to be very little information. Also, earlier on I had thought about Affinity Photo, but I decided that Affinity Photo might not result in great focus stacked results based on what I've seen on YouTube. After thinking some more, I decided that essentially combining focus stacking and/or HDR with simultaneous processing of uncompressed photos might not be of much significance or importance to me. Therefore, my decision has since become easier to some degree. If I could just freaking figure Picolay out after getting some compelling imagery, I'd be about set with my decision; so far, I've only tried with six photos being stacked at once for focus stacking in Picolay, and the results seemed about a seven to eight out of ten in terms of how well it turned out. So, what will I eventually choose then?! My best guess so far, is to most likely go with On1 Camera RAW, but admittedly it's an extremely close race, and the more information I receive, the more my decision can sway towards Aurora HDR. I think that Reddit might need to be a source of information for me to add to my favorites tab. If I knew for certain that the results that are possible using Aurora can be created with a "joint session" using Elements combined with On1's HDR capabilities (although I might also be able to do it all solely in On1) that would really boost my decision making success! I know that Don Komarechka has been extremely successful as mainly a macro photographer using On1, but I think that part of his workflow has also included Photoshop, the full version. A program that could do the work for me accurately is what's important to me, efficiency is only slightly important to me. For me, it's not so much HDR that's compelling as in photography, but instead the tonemapping, but on regular, non-HDR photos, tonemapping doesn't look quite right in my opinion. HDR has taken up approximately twenty five percent of all of my photos, with the other seventy five percent being photos that were almost solely processed using Adobe Camera RAW, not made from multiple exposures. Focus stacking is something that has essentially stirred mixed emotions in my mind, because the vast majority of my focus stacks would be of landscape photos, not super macro. I realize that yes, a small aperture can solve the depth of field issue, but at what cost? Diffraction is the price to pay for using a small aperture, which mostly okay for social media, unless you'd like to crop in. I don't like the thought of using a narrow aperture also because of the slower shutter speed and/or higher ISO setting that would be required. Signing off for now, please follow me for more.