Oh, I was seeing interesting texture in luminosity, as you probably were - monochrome is great for contrast. But when you add in color, and similar colors are adjacent, the eye blends and flattens. The only way I can see to preserve that texture is for the colors to be more differentiated along that texture. I expected that there would be enough small frequency differences within each band to do just that (or be made to do that). Your second image is much closer to what I was expecting to see.
I guess I was looking for more art and less science - sort of.
My screen calibration should be ok - I did get a colormunki when you recommended it last go-round. This is with a Benq, and it was actually pretty close with the original factory settings. Pretty pleased about that - I was hoping for decent color on a budget and that seems to have worked out.