well, if you think about it, you do tonal mapping on most of your RAW files before you turn them into JPGs. I've even done it to JPGs a bit, since PhotoShop's Camera Raw came out. It just helps with making pictures more realistic. Now you can go overboard with it and make them look like airbrush art, but if you only do it a bit, The can look much better then regular photos. HDR even gives photos more depth. That's my opinion at least