The straight to the point answer is yes, you can use less bits to encode the same range, though for practical matters you'll get strong banding as a result. Tha

The straight to the point answer is yes, you can use less bits to encode the same range, though for practical matters you'll get strong banding as a result. That is because the log curve applied to make the range viewable on a screen will stretch the lowest part of the range. Moreover, the multiple passes made in the linear (wide) range will produce artifacts viewable in screen space much more quickly.