Doremus said: "Evaluating the prints is an art in itself." So true!
The right viewing light for wet (damp) prints is very important. If it is way too bright (or is fluorescent), your prints will probably look dull when viewed in your regular display conditions. I make it a practice to carefully mop the surface of the print with a cellulose sponge (reserved for this purpose, it must not be considered clean for washed prints) to get all of the surface water off before evaluating them.
Then the experience part kicks in. Michael Smith (whom I respected as a technical expert in his process which was Lodima chloride paper and amidol) swore that "dry-down" is a myth. However that may be, in my experience, using Ilford MG FB products, highlight tone seems to magically appear when the print is dry that appears blown-out when wet. (I notice little change in the low values). So I just adjust exposure and contrast to get the highlights just "blown" by appearance when wet, and when dry, there they are.
There's a real craft to this, and there's no getting around it, and expending many boxes of paper in the process.
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