D800 / CAMERA RAW SHARPNESS ISSUES

Question

Perhaps somebody else is also having this problem:
I own a Nikon D800, which performs beautifully, but I have hit a snag with it:  If I open its raw files using ACR (for later edition either in Lightroom or Photoshop) even though they contain a staggering amount of detail, they somehow fail to live up to the expectations a full-frame 36MP camera generates regarding image sharpness.
To further illustrate:  I also own a Fuji XE-2, which has an APS 16MP sensor, which, however, offers stunning, razor-sharp images almost every time I press the shutter.  Opening these files in ACR is a delight and you have to edit them much less than the D800 files to get the image you had previously visualized.
However, if I open the NEF files using Nikon's own Capture NX-D software, voilà!  The images look as sharp as they should have from the start in ACR. But, if I export the resulting edit, via TIFF, either to Lightroom or Photoshop, again you feel disappointed, they are too soft:  I did not pay a hefty chunk of my cash for the camera and lenses to get soft pictures.
The gist of the problem here is that Capture NX-D is a fine piece of software but it handles a little stiffly when compared to ACR and introducing it in my workflow would slow things down.
Does anyone have an idea how to overcome this problem to get sharp images from NEF files in ACR?

Answer 1

Nikon has a raw conversion software in their camera and computer-based applications which consists of algorithms and parameters that guide the application of the algorithms to render a JPG.
Adobe has a raw conversion software which consists of algorithms and parameters that guide the application of the algorithms to render the raw data as an RGB image that you see, and eventually save as some file format.
The raw conversion algorithms are proprietary within each company and Nikon parameters that may be embedded in the NEF file are only relevant to Nikon software.  Let’s say the sharpening parameters in the NEF file are +3.  What does that mean to Adobe which has an Amount slider of 0 to 150?  So Adobe ignores the Nikon-specific sharpness parameters.  Until Adobe and Nikon are the same company (as well as Canon and Sony and Panasonic and Olympus and Leica, etc) Adobe will have different algorithms and parameters to guide the raw conversion than the camera manufacturers.  Some day we may live in a society where the state provides all photography hardware and software and everything is the same, but until then, there is competition between various companies and intellectual property rights and patent laws that keep each from knowing exactly what the other is doing.
Adobe converts raw files from many models and brands of cameras.  For the most part they use the same algorithms and parameters for each of these models and brands. 
Suppose you work for a photography company with many photographers where some use Nikon and some use Canon and some use Sony, etc, and it is your job to work on each of those raw files.  If Adobe had one set of sliders for Nikon files and another set for Canon files and another set for Sony files, in other words if Adobe tried to do the things as specific to the camera manufacturer as possible, then it would be difficult to work on the raw files across the various camera manufacturers.  If you use Adobe software it shouldn’t matter what brand or model of camera you’re working with, the workflow should be similar and the results similar to the extent the raw data, itself, is similar.