Lon, this certainly a very detailed and well-crafted writeup. I sincerely hope others will review and comment.
I use only ACR and PS for all my processing. Noise reduction, if needed is accomplished using Neat Image (NI) and camera profiles I generated myself using instructions in NI.
Note: For those interested, Neat Image is a PS Plugin that is excellent and they have profiles for many cameras on their website you can download. The plugin is not free, but the cost is reasonable.
As to workflow, mine is very similar to yours, except that I don’t create the Smart Object layer with Adobe Camera Raw filter. I’ll have to look at that. I do any cloning and use TK’s Sharpen for Web and his Save for Web action. I also crop in PS, leaving the RAW untouched. Yes, I do save early and often.
Thanks again for the excellent article. I hope folks find it as informative and useful as I have,
-P