Better process conversion, pretty please?

Question

I am a true believer in progress and development, and I trust the Lightroom engineers when they say the 2012 process version will give better image quality and ease of use.
My problem now is that I get different sliders in Develop depending on which photo I have selected. I would really like to batch upgrade my 14,000+ images, but obviously this is a bad idea since moving from process 2010 to 2012 will make many photos look quite different.
If I could wish for one feature in an upcoming 4.x release it would be a more intelligent process conversion. I.e. a process upgrade that takes into account the pixel values in the photo in process 2010 and then actively sets the sliders to match the look as closely as possible, not just based on some rough pre-determined slider conversion.
I know some things will be hard/impossible to convert without changing the look of the photo, such as the clarity slider. But most of the exposure, contrast, fill light, blacks, recovery, etc should be possible to reproduce with the new sliders + tone curve.
I wouldn't care much if this intelligent process conversion were much more CPU intensive, it could for instance be made an option and performed over night.

Answer 1

CSS Simon wrote:
Also not meaning to come across as arrogant, but if the conversion were accurate, what would be the point in batch converting? 
I think your opening statement:
     "I trust the Lightroom engineers when they say the 2012 process version will give better image quality"
may be an incomplete representation of the benefits of PV2012.  The improved processing means that the image quality may be better, certainly.  That means different.  PV2010 introduced things like better noise reduction, which might be uncontentious, in the "just do it" category.  But the changes to the basic panel in PV2012 are things like improved tonal mapping, highlight protection and so on, which not only may look better (=different) but also need subjective assessment. 
So even if Adobe had been able to make the conversion so good that it would, as you said: "match the look as closely as possible" then it wouldn't be better; it would be the same.  So why convert if you are not then going to make further individual adjustments to each image? 
The point in batch converting would be to have one set of sliders independent of which photo I happen to come across and re-edit.
While the new basic sliders (ignore clarity for a moment) are easier to use and more logical - they're basically just narrowly mapped controls manipulating the underlying tone curve/histogram right? The new sliders are surprisingly close to the sliders for the parametric tone curve. Having compared them quickly, the Blacks seems to be very close to the Shadows tone curve slider. (Just realized there are now two different "Shadows" sliders ...) The basic panel Shadows seems less powerful than tone curve Darks, while the basic sliders Highlights and Whites are much more powerful than their tone curve counterparts.
I know that the exposure slider now is better att retaining (=not blowing out) highlights, but lets be honest: LR 4 can't magicly pull data out of an image that wasn't there to start with (and hence could be restored in LR3 or any raw processor).
A photo like this, where all I have done is pull the exposure up 1,5 stops, should be pretty simple to convert without a huge visual difference, right?
But no, in PV2012 the blacks become mushy, washy greys:
I understand and accept that photos with positive/negative clarity are going to look quite different with the new local magic. As for photos with only basic adjustments, the difference shouldn't need to be this big.
I love the fact that they have tried to simplify the controls and make them more logical, I just wish I could get the new controls throughout Lightroom without it changing the look of photos that I have already edited and decided how I want them to look.
My final point is that it would be quite possible to have the new controls, a new default look for new photos, make it easier to get the most out of new photos all while having an intelligent reverse-engineering script that replicates the look of old photos.