Hi Alan,
Nothing much wrong with these images, I do prefer the second set. As Jono advises, try daylight WB, it is all I use. UniWB is fine if you have exposure issues with strong reds/blues which may lead to underexposure of one of these channels - the red flower syndrome! Most of my work is in the Himalaya, with lots of monotones (rocks!) but I need neutrals to be just right, and daylight WB delivers. If you get WB right, the colour almost always falls into place, I find.
What you may want is more midtone contrast - for more lift to the colours (colour is a midtone phenomenon). If a Photoshop user, my favourite move for this matter is 20% or so of Soft Light Blending Mode in an 'empty' curve layer.
The A900 is very sensitive to overexposure leading to washed out colours happening *within* the huge DR of the sensor. I generally expose twice for an important scene, focussing on getting the main subject colour of interest in the middle of the tonal range; I generally have to reduce the camera's choice by a half to one stop to get the best colour. Exposure of all cameras is unpredictable and there is no correct exposure - you have to do it by eye later on using the RC on screen.
The DR is so wide you can now have your colour cake in the midtones and eat the shadow detail too! As you will usually have enough f-stops below the 'ideal' aperture for best colour...if you wish to read more of this look up 'Hardloaf' (Andrey) in this forum, who does a good job of explaining the issues from an RC developer's POV. And no, I am not a fan of ETTR, once coloured objects are out on the right extremity of the histogram, that ship has sailed and it will not be coming back...
I hear good things about the latest LR but I am a Sony IDC user, as it delivers bang on colour with excellent sat/tone at the expense of some loss of shadow detail. If you try it, switch off all NR and set WB and exposure by eye. Don't be frightened to push colours either, that will tell you where the casts lie...just check around the neutrals and see what happens. You have plenty in these 2 photos, for example - white trim on buildings, yachts, etc. But understand that very few objects are totally monotone...
Looking again, plenty of saturation in those R lenses, no problem there. I use a battery of alt lenses also, CY and Mamiya 645 - so I understand where you are coming from. A long reply but I hope some of it helps. kind regards, Philip