What article?

Sorry, poorly worded. They do stop down, but not in AV mode (as you said you were using).
In Manual mode they don't report the aperture, so you have to take a reading with the green button which stops it down briefly to calculate an exposure, or by some other means, and then shoot.

How nIce
Well then the following opinion is for anyone else wanting to try this:
It's a combination of things by the looks of it. Basically almost everything is wrong.
Way too slow shutter.
Manual zoom, can't have SR set accurately. SR doesn't work as well at the long end anyway.
Wide open lens focus user error given poor light in viewfinder?
incidentally, a manual lens won't automatically stop down during the exposure; you explicitly set it and get a reading before the shot. Or you work with it wide open.

I can't stand blown highlights either, it's just a personal thing, but it screams cheap camera or phone and washes out the colours nearby. There's undoubtedly a compromise somewhere that looks spectacular.
In any case, I think we should raise our image making to do better than the eye. Done with care so it doesn't look false; just capturing what the mind sees when it joins up the exposures
Matt, they look fab. Love your Velvia preset, but then, I love Velvia

Yep I think that's the long and short of it Nigel, I don't think it is fixable to any realistic degree. There was a chance it would look interesting anyway.
Nice to see the variations

An interesting take on it, going for daylight. Unfortunately, lifting the exposure that much has revealed lightroom's stitching errors. So the left third has been revealed as a different picture.
I wonder about the sun beams. They seem darker and yellower than the surrounding sky.
You've definitely dragged lots of detail out of it, but we have gone to either extremes between us. I wonder which one Joe public likes

First one is beautiful

Thanks guys.
Mr B. looks like you used the JPEG as it's posterising a bit, but I like how you've removed some of the jaundiced look of the original.
Matt, that looks very natural from here. Pretty similar to how I remember it.
After seeing John's warm version, I had another play and mine looks like this at the moment.
Very illustrative and purely for screen viewing; way too dark for print I suspect.


Click for large version.
Usual tricks in LR gradient filters top and bottom for tint and clarity mostly. Then I cheated and warmed the whole lot up in PS Topaz! shock horror Not too sickly or OTT I hope.
Feel free to rip it to shreds, it's just a bit of fun.

I like the extra red in yours John. I think it does need more foreground tho, not just for balance but to contextualise the cloud formation (the latter being a personal thing as it's shot from my tank on the hill).
Andy: yep, that's kinda how mine were turning out, when I tried to even out the exposure; the green goes a bit weird eh?

Colours are nice John
Not sure about the grain.