Sometimes things pop too much with path tracing! I like some of the better ambient lighting within shadows, and I agree about your "fullbright" thing. I always felt they could have just fixed the materials there though. But bright neon lights (which are everywhere) give off too much bloom with path tracing. The lights themselves feel too hazy and unrealistic, despite them being more technically real. I think lights that you're looking at directly need to be tuned for path tracing purposes better. I felt there's areas at night where path tracing was ruining the atmosphere created by artists without path tracing in mind.