I agree completely Aaron- the regularly processed shot is MUCH more to my liking, and style. I think I posted it a while back- I'll dig it up.
This makes me cringe as well.
I just like to see what happens when I intentionally turn it up to 11 every once in a while, and push every single distortion pedal

(In this case the meat grinder of choice was Photomatix with the much maligned "Grunge Setting"- I simply clicked the button, and watched the nightmare unfold) And I see you caught all the annoyances, esp the fan-like banding up top.:sombrero:
As a theoretical excercise- I'm trying to figure out what type of landscape shots would lend themselves to stylized HDR shots- My gut feeling is NONE- but I do feel there is an interesting comic book feel to some shots that have a 2-d quality to begin with, much like this shot.
Clear separate elements. Distinct blocks of color, not much visual depth foreground to background.