Since LR, came out with the HDR and pano features, I really have not looked anywhere else for solutions.
I would also recommend the creation of the HDR dng first, then taking all the dngs and creating the pano. A few things I have found out.
The LR pano tool seems to work better with dng or raw output, not imported tif files. Tif files will be treated the same way as Adobe CC photoshop's panomerge seems to handle them.
The HDR output into dng can be a bit plain, but resist the urge to work on the files until you merge into the pano. Once merged, into yet another dng, you can now work on the file with the LR toolset just like it's a raw
The HDR output into dng can fool you as the file will outwardly appear flat, but there is still a ton of life left in the shot.
The pano merge does a better job on exposure blending when working on raw or dng files, where as imported tif files it seems to have some limitations.
Personally, I have found the HDR tool by far the best I have used. I am not looking for a 3D/grunge look that's easy enough to get. The blending is very good and the end results is a very malleable raw/dng file. I hope to see Adobe tweak this tool a bit more in the future as there is some room for improvement. Working on older files like 1ds or 1ds MKII files, all taken from 2003 to 2007 are very impressive. Year of using a zork adapter, 3 shift, and 3 brackets per shot now really pays off, as the end results are by far the best I have seen from these Canon images.
Paul C