Lightroom :: Adjustment Brush To Add Effects Like Clarity

I recently took some Milky Way photos and was attempting to process them in Lightroom.  Many of the effects I am using are hardly doing anything.  I'll use clarity for an example.
 
I typically use the adjustment brush to add effects like clarity soley to the Milky Way.  I find a setting of 40-60 is usually sufficient.  Sliding the scale from -100 to 100 is DRAMATIC, making the Milky Way overly "pop" in a disgusting, artificial manner.
 
However, on my most recent batch when I applied a clarity of 50 I could hardly tell.  Sliding the slider from -100 to 100 had a very small difference.  Other effects are behaving similarly.
 
When I go back to my older photos the brushes seem to work.  However, any of these new photos (which have various exposures settings) all behave similary in that I just can't get the effects to do much.  The originals of my older photos and my new photos look comparable.