Assign Profile vs Converting to Profile

This relates to a very lengthy thread in the InDesign forum, "RGB vs CMYK images and resolution"

I have a lot of questions (perhaps confusing) relating to RGB color gamuts. To simplify let's start with 2 gamuts, ProPhoto and Adobe RGB

I have a profile editor that can view both of these within potato-shaped Lab gamut. They are of course both triangles, I believe all RGB gamuts are. I can see ProPhoto is considerably larger than Adobe RGB, containing more fringe colors

I also see that the gamma of Adobe RGB is 2.2. The white point is 6500K

The gamma of ProPhoto is 1.8. The white point is 5000K

I understand gamma to be "black point". Or better yet "black density". On a press sheet, ink density can be measured with a densitometer. In my experience a density reading of 2.2 on a press sheet would be very dark. Is my understanding correct - that gamma (RGB) is comparable to ink density (CMYK)? Perhaps better to state as an analogy: Gamma: RGB as Density: CMYK

My monitor RGB profile has a gamma of 1.8 (mac standard). This tells me that the Adobe RGB gamma of 2.2 has to be re-interpreted on my display. Is that correct?

As for white point, that would be the RGB equivalent of CMYK paper white.

The InDesign forum has a lot of discussion about assigning profiles, vs converting to profiles. My understanding is that assigning a different RGB is actually a "pure" conversion. The pixels are left completely intact. There is no move to Lab, and back to RGB. It's taking the image and effectively dropping it into a brand new gamut, The price for this, of course, is that the appearances of the colors are completely redefined, and this appearance shift can at times be radical.

For example, if I have an ProPhoto image open, then assign Adobe RGB, I can see very clearly that the image becomes darker on-screen, and the color "shrinks"

As a prepress person, I have often used re-assigning in RGB mode as a very effective color correction tool. Usually it's turd polishing, to be quite honest, when critical color match is not an issue. The scenario is usually a crappy sRGB image. I assign Adobe RGB, which as the Adobe description states is ideal for conversion to CMYK. I must add that I always use proof preview, I am well aware that Adobe RGB has colors far beyond a standard CMYK gamut. But when I convert to CMYK, using Adobe RGB as the source, the image color is expanded, and the result on press is often vastly improved.

I will also add that as a prepress person, I don't go re-assigning in this fashion without the customer's consent.

In the InDesign forum, this "re-assigning" has been referred to as "random color". There is a lot of emphasis on color appearance, and maintaining color appearance. The consensus therefore is that if you had an sRGB image, you should convert to Adobe RGB. But then it is my understanding that you miss out on the often huge benefit of gamut expansion. If you wanted to expand color after converting, you have to do color corrections, which alters the pixel data and in the strictest sense is destructive (unless you use adjustment layers).

All this leaves me wondering - if assigning is such a no-no, why is it available? Probably the main reason for the assign capability is to assign profiles to images that don't have an embedded profile. Sometimes users unknowingly discard profiles, if the color settings policy is set to off. When another user open the image, he quickly sees the image does not have a profile.

Normally he would assign his working space, since that is affecting his visual on-screen appearance. But he can't know for sure if that's true to the original capture.

Which brings up another point. Any device doing the capture (camera or scanner) has a gamut. This gamut is an input profile.  When the image is translated from device capture into digital file, should this input profile be embedded in the image?

At this point I'm not sure about this. I have a 7.1 MP camera, and the downloads always have sRGB embedded. Not a profile specific to the Kodak model. My guess is that sRGB is a universal standard, representing the gamuts of monitors and desktop scanners. It is the working space of the world wide web. So it's more or less the default RGB, and is also the default working space in all Adobe applications (North America general purpose).

But the description of sRGB is very clear. It is not ideal for prepress, this is stated in Adobe's description. It is small. This may make it comparable to CMYK, but it is still not ideal for conversion to CMYK. And in fact there are CMYK colors that fall outside of sRGB. Especially if you are dealing with the larger CMYK gamuts corresponding to new offset screening technologies (FM screening and concentric screening)

So why in the world would someone convert from sRGB, to Adobe RGB? There's no benefit at all. May as well leave it sRGB, instead of converting. And the even bigger question - how do you know that sRGB is "true" color? To me, the true color is the original subject. In the case of a photo, that might be just a memory. In the case of a scan. it's the original, but the user might not even have that, if someone else did the scan and all he has is the digital file. So who's to say that the embedded profile - sRGB - is a fair representation of the original?

Re-assigning RGB profiles may be an odd way of adjusting color. But it can be effective. Why would the assign option be readily available, if not to translate colors to a different gamut, without altering pixel data? Seems to me it is the primary reason Adobe developed the assign option in the first place.

I know this is a lot of questions. Any input on any of these matters would be greatly appreciated.