Hi Imeric ... I wasn't trying to tell you what you should do
These settings work differently. I was just not understanding why you would ask for an option to use Replay gain and not R128.
AFAIK - they are two separate "norms" and they do not give the same measurements on all songs (actually some tracks with good dynamic range in one gives a bad read out in the other, albeit using different scales). However, maximising volume doesn't increase the dynamic range. If you have clipping with protection enabled its probably decreasing it. (a bit unrelated, but remember the volume wars). Nirvana and a Mozart opera can both have big dynamic ranges (quietest to loudest parts of the track), not the same as the output volume or gain to be adjusted
On playlists I have the adaptive option on with VL and it does not just bump it up the same as the gain reduction. It depends on the averaging of the songs in the playlists. When you are using this to listen to complete albums that is a different story.
The only reason I adjust my eq at all is because I don't use levelling all the time like some people do here. I only use it for playlists/play doctor etc. For my normal listening, I preset my analogue Preamp volume and use Internal Volume (no levelling), depending on the type of music I listen to. That is coming out to around 85 to 90db max if the slider is set to 100% in JRiver. If I want to really go louder than that (rare) I will manually change the preamp volume, (I can configure my preamp so it always starts up at the same level, so I never half to worry about blowing my tweeters) The volume slider in the main zone is preset to 60% so it is never too loud and I'll adjust up or down to suit. When I shift zones, the volume leveling one, its preset to 63%
What happens is when I decide to listen to a playlist or shuffle a bunch of albums, I'll switch into another "playlist" zone which has Volume leveling set with the Adaptive option. The preamp eq is set to +2.5db. Which is more or less the difference between my main zone, combined with the preset slider at 63%. If I always had volume levelling on I wouldn't boost the eq at all I'd just adjust my analogue preamp settings. Some cds will go into clipping at +5db, and even if you have clipping protection on, I avoid it bad for the ol' SQ. The pream EQ is over and above the VL calculation, so better to be prudent if using this IMO.
So mine is a particular scenario, and each person is going to go about it in a different way. I just want to not have real huge boosts in volume when switching zones. Some people want the same exact volume for every track,others select 20 albums and just listen to music all day in the background, and others want the album dynamics and just never want to mess with their volume knob -- all are valid, but the options would be different. (There's also a few that whine on the fact that the attenuation is too much, but I thinks that's for people using computer speakers and maybe using system volume, but generally that is pretty rare.)
Brian gave a very good explanation, on the options ... you can adapt them to how you want to listen to your stuff. Or like I do create a zone or two for different ways you want to listen to your collection