I think if you do a white point balance of an input image you leave
color management and enter appearance management which can be image
dependent, scene balance algorithms work well with consumer images for
the most cases resulting in no editing

If I am right you can access the RAW image from a digital camera without
the white point balance and use this input image in color managed
workflows, there can even be some successful appearance matching using
color relative to white point conversions as opposed to absolute color,
this appearance matching can go further into ideal appearance choices as
work spaces for editing, although as I know from experience ideal
appearances have to be a customer selection to fit a workflow and some
selections are not compatible, like applying an ideal print selection
input to an ideal transparency or translucency output

has ICC got this far yet or are people just applying sRGB profiles to
white point balanced images? sRGB was a bad idea from the start, it
presented an out from using an actual profile

I know there is such a thing as "good enough" as opposed to perfect,,
especially in consumer and consumer based industries like newspapers

I know you can choose any two of the three: cost,time,quality but not
all three

is it the case that people are only using color managed workflows for
many-colored output processes?


--
Dale