Yes, I’m using EXR files because HDR won’t work fine as a texture to place in objects (I don’t know why and don’t know if there is a way to fix that). So I convert the HDR files to EXR in Photoshop.
You are getting weird visuals because you’re trying to tweak the texture via its own parameters (like the Brightness that you changed to 0.2). Don’t do that, it won’t work fine for HDR and EXR files. Instead, use those nodes in the material like I did. They are parameters so I change them in real time until I get the results I want.