What would you recommend for processing NEF?

I think you could have reduced the haze in LR.

Question is what was your original starting and ending NEF file size in CNX2 versus LR?

I'd use CNX all day long if they allowed something between the 200k thumbnail and 14MB full size version to be embedded in the NEF after edit. Ideally the starting 1-3MB JPEG size you start with when you import.

Not having my file size inflate 70% or so is important to me so I use Lightroom.