DPP is Canon's own Digital Photo Professional which I had been persuaded must know more about Canon RAW/CR2 format than PSE; seems not so.

1st frame is of Langdale valley edited entirely in DPP and can't be shown along side this years output http://www.pbase.com/crisscross/langpavey
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...1&d=1211628655
The next frame shows it 'ex-camera' in PSE RAW converter window

Further frames show take-up in Nikon Capture NX with annotations (the exposure compensation is about all that needs to be done in RAW section of D80 shots aswell; for D3/300 there are additional RAW editing features)
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...1&d=1211628866
last one includes finished result which goes fine with current D80 output
In this case you might say PSE/CS>shadows/mid-tones/highlights would have done the same thing, but often several steps need to be put in the gradient and can always be precisely matched to the relevant part of the image