Ideally you want to stick with the raw data. The JPEG engine that processes the raw massively clips and compresses highlights. We often don't when editing the raw. This compression can clump midtones as much as 1 stop while compressing shadow details! People incorrectly state that raw has more highlight data but the fact is, the DR captured is an attribute of the capture system; it's all there in the raw but maybe not in a camera proceed JPEG.
A raw capture that's 10 or 11 stops of dynamic range can be compressed to 7 stops from this JPEG processing which is a significant amount of data and tonal loss! So when we hear people state that a raw has more DR than a JPEG, it's due to the poor rendering or handling of the data to create that JPEG. The rendering of this data and the reduction of dynamic range is from the JPEG engine that isn't handling the DR data that does exists as well as we can from the raw! Another reason to capture and render the raw data, assuming you care about how the image is rendered!
And do read this outstanding article (long but necessary) on the subject:
Moving forward from this, IF you shoot for optimal exposure for a JPEG, you are very often massively under exposing the raw data. You can't treat them the same due to the data.
What setting am I missing to work with them in RAW?
If a raw file was shot, Lightroom Classic will use it, so the only setting to check would be on the camera. If the camera is set to record in raw, Lightroom Classic should automatically be recognizing the files as raw for editing.
One way that might not happen is if you have a camera so new or obscure that its raw format is not yet supported by Lightroom Classic. What camera model are you using?
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