The duplication stems from the presence of two workflows in DT: scene-referred and display-referred. I think OP was pushing for the scene-referred workflow and

The duplication stems from the presence of two workflows in DT: scene-referred and display-referred. I think OP was pushing for the scene-referred workflow and removal of the legacy display-referred workflow and all related modules. In fact Ansel made a step in that direction. It removed legacy modules (from UI at least), also, for example, it replaced sharpen and soften modules with some iirc wavelet-based thingy which does both (I forgot the name as I tried it long ago). Can’t comment on contrast after desaturation directly. Perhaps OP could explain why it is done so. A tangential thing: desaturation is actually a complicated process. You could rely on lightness, you could rely on RGB components, etc.. I think Ansel and its Color balance and CAT modules give you full control over all this complexity. These tools are much more flexible than anything offered by competitors. But it’s certainly not easy. This is a bit related to the sibling comment about targeting towards technically inclined people.