Not the OP, but you have to understand that 'compression of the dynamic range' is an artistic tool. Literally choosing the lighting ratio of an image is how you build out lighting for a scene. With AI overwriting these choices, you're looking at something more akin to colorization than upscaling.

Not really, half the battle with SDR video is tonemapping a high dynamic range to fit into SDR. That process is not artistic, it's a process on trying not to make it look bad.

I think you need to understand that it is not always a 'artistic tool' but a money or knowledge limitation.

I'm a filmmaker... I don't know a single DOP or director who wishes they could work in HD but is limited by finances or knowledge. Again, shaping light is the essence of cinematography. Modern DSLRs far surpass the dynamic range (although not the effective resolution) of 35mm film. And yet the image they produce isn't comparable. When it comes to image quality, bit depth is enormously more important than dynamic range. When it comes to creating an artistic image, dynamic range hasn't been a limit for many decades.

Very informative comment! Could you please tell me what you mean by "effective resolution?" Is it the resolution in px or something to do with dynamic range? (I don't know anything about filmmaking.)

Probably in pixels, good quality 35mm seems to top around "12k" according to some of the people doing scans.

I'm a photographer and filmmmaker. And now?

The world is huge btw.

You can’t preserve something that was lost (but perhaps you can recreate a substitute).