A quick post not about what Darktable and RawTherapee can do, but what I can do with either one of them and one button click.
First, Darktable. It's so easy to create presets (called styles), so mine is stacked up with some modules and their basic settings, including standard sharpening, CA and fringe removal, lens correction (if applicable), Amaze demosaic, the filmic module, some contrast applied and the haze removal default setting (similar to clarity in other software I guess). Darktable guessed the temperature as 4137K.
Then RawTherapee. I have a couple of default presets for it (called profiles) but they never seem to work well out of the box. I usually have more luck with Auto Levels than my own profiles, so I just used that instead (doesn't work every time either). RawTherapee guessed the temperature as 4152 - close enough, I guess.
I find it interesting how much more pleasing DarkTable is right out of the box. I have an older init style that I also tried to apply, which does not have filmic and some other modules, and uses the standard demosaic that is not as good as Amaze. But the results are still pretty similar, though not as good as with filmic.
With RawTherapee, I'd have to try to mess with the color balance. The first thing I did was to try to adjust the WB a bit to match what I had with Darktable, but then everything started getting a bit too greenish on top of being too yellowish. So I gave up.
The point is, Darktable makes RAW make sense because for the most part, even a one-click conversion/style(preset) can make it look better than the JPEG engine usually does, by quite a lot. For my boys soccer, I run that preset as a batch, and it has the advantage of killing 90% of the purple fringing from the white uniforms out in the bright sun. If I'm doing just one picture at a time, adjusting highlights and shadows if needed is a breeze with the extra dynamic range from RAW.
Not knocking RawTherapee at all. On some occasions I've used one of the "Pop" default profiles and got great results from it, just had to adjust the exposure and the vignetting a bit as it's usually over-exaggerated. I've even made my own "Pop" styles in Darktable.
What's your experience? Is Darktable pretty easy to get good results in a pinch for you?