The sharpening thing is interesting, not least because I have no idea what is & isn't appropriate sharpening; I just go with what looks right to me. At least it avoids a formulaic approach, though I concede I could know a bit more about the subject than I do.
Well - as you could see from this thread the (creative - not capture or output) sharpening is highly subjective.
So - basically you can do what you want.
I personally prefer a tension between sharp and unsharp areas with some exceptions of pure unsharp or pure tack-sharp images.
What I often do (in Lightroom) is, to turn down clarity a lot, increase global contrast as far as sanely possible and
then paint back the clarity into areas I feel it belongs to. Of course the devel is in the details and sliders ...
but this can help you to create that tension and get excess sharpness out of the image.
Of course its best when it looks natural and is not to be seen afterwards as a PP trick.