Can't help with a pointer to a single good tutorial, but I've read and participated in several forum discussions on the topic over the years, including some with input from Eric Chan, Adobe's ACR guru.
Eric claims that the ACR adjustments "interact", and should be used, in the way they are layed out in the UI. Top down and left to right. So, Basic adjustments first, Curves second, Detail third, etc. Within Basic, Exposure first, Contrast second, etc. There is one key exception to this, and that is Camera Calibration (profile) which is applied before anything else.
Exposure, Contrast, Whites, and Blacks are all just curves of different shapes (bell, arc, slant, S). Even Clarity is kind of an S-Curve applied with an edge mask. Highlights and Shadows adjustments are very different beasts. They are not curves. They have evolved to use some very complicated and unique logic. Google "Laplacian Filters" for a fun read about that.
Take an Exposure adjustment and a Curve adjustment as an example. Build a positive Exposure adjustment that moves a "highlight" pixel from 210 to 220 (+10 points) when used by itself (no other adjustments). Then build a Curves adjustment that does the same thing when used by itself. Now, when you make both adjustments active at the same time will the sample pixel move 10+10=20 points?
The answer is no. The reason is that whatever adjustment happens second is not starting at the 210 pixel value. It's starting at the 220 pixel value created by the first adjusment. If Eric is correct, the Curves is happening after the Exposure.