Hi Adam,
This is my personal view on this format. I have the feeling that many people are happy with it. PNG was developed for the web, to my knowledge, and way back in time, it was maybe sufficient for most tasks to use it. However, for over 15 years, we have used the Linear light workflow, and for many years now, we finally have ACES. Both are in 3D rendering linear and based mainly on OpenEXR.
Not that OpenEXR could have its little problems, like not flagged for ACEScg on default or not flagged as ACES 2065-1 as it should. I asked Adobe to implement that 1.5 years ago…
Here are three PNGs; two of them might cause trouble, missing full-color data based on baked-in transparency or missing which Color space was used. I labeled it so you know it is Adobe RGB; you might see a color shift when you set it correctly. Not much, but it is worth keeping in mind things are not, by default, sRGB.
Typically, many sources tell that color in Redshift is sRGB and data is Raw; for that to be true, the image must be coded. Raw is not sRGB linear, for example.
https://stcineversityprod02.blob.core.windows.net/$web/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2023_PROJECTS_DRS/20231012_PNG_variations_alpha_color.zip
False_interpretation.jpg
Color management and file formats are a must-have knowledge if quality is the target.
All the best