Thanks for the additional renders, BB.

Yeah, that's the problem: Local shadows.

In my "Beach Scene", there are no buildings, Just the sand and the background/sky.

I can add "local shadows" easily by creating an additional "shadow catcher" ground layer to darken ground shadows, thus creating the illusion of IDL without actually using it.

But in a "fully furnished" scene like the backyard scene I've shown, there are simply too many nooks and crannies and dark corners going on to get a truly convincing "IDL-free" result.

I'm all for faster render times and I'm constantly trying to refine the light sets I use, but so far it was always the shadows that gave any shortcuts away that I tried.