That said Walt, you say you see the same in Photos on your ipad? So your ipad is showing the messed up version? So why would that be? Yes, if I open in Affinity, it is correct, as you say, but I need to be able to reopen in Siril (or Preview or Photos) and get what I expect to get.
Another thing to set me straight: If I open a clean, RAW image from my camera, yes, Affinity has opened it in the Develop persona. However, if I wish to then use layers etc, can I process it in the develop persona first then transfer to the other 'persona' for layers etc (I forget the names of the personas), do further processing then back to develop persona for final tweaks and develop?