ACR layout thoughtfulness

I very seldom use the Auto setting. I prefer setting camera defaults for my cameras and setting basic settings to my liking that will generally give me a good starting point with my images. Then I only need to make individual adjustments as necessary, depending on unique situations.

The flow of the adjustments in camera raw 12.3 is more like that of Lightroom Classic. That in itself is enough to irritate some users who inherently don't like Lightroom. But as a primarily Lightroom Classic user, I understand the workflow and can tolerate the new Camera Raw interface. If one takes the time to establish defaults for their cameras in Camera Raw so that some basic settings are applied when the images are first loaded, much of the work can already be accomplished for you by having those Basic settings already in place except for images that might have unique circumstances.

I often try "Auto" first and reset if I don't like it.

For manual adjustments I first adjust temperature though I hardly ever need to. I generally then work from the bottom upwards. Pull down blacks until clipping starts, pull up whites until clipping starts then adjust shadows and highltights to suit. I rarley change contrast. Then it's over to local adjustments where necessary.

I guess everyone develops their own ways either simpler than mine or far more complex but this works for me.