So here is an image captured without HDR and shot the right way. I waited 6.2 hours for this to become just perfect with the right cliffs and trees lit up all together. Tim
what else did you miss while waiting an entire day for this one shot.
Of course the sun also moved quite a bit during that time. Based on the color in the trees I am guessing this was shot in October which means that the sun moved more than halfway through its arc in the sky during that time.
If that is the case and this is the light that you wanted why did you wait at all? Why not just leave and come back when the sun was where you wanted it to be?
What if you had come back and the sun was right where you wanted it to be but the dynamic range was still to high to capture with any camera, sensor, film, etc? Would you just not make the shot you want?
The way I see it HDR is just the latest in a series of tools that helps photographers create the photographs they want. Before HDR we had the Zone System, Burning and Dodging, Graded Papers, Split Grad ND Filters, and many other tricks
The only "proper" way to do anything in photography is to do it the way you want. If it works for you and you are happy with the result it was the proper way.