Effect Background

[glorybound]

What does this do? When enabled, which is by default, my HDRI background is too dark and my shadows are good. When disabled my HDRI background is good, but my shadows are too dark. I know I can disconnect the two, but why? What I have been doing is making my HDRI invisible and dropping a copy in the environment slot, but that seems like an unnecessary step.

[glorybound]

Okay, so maybe my shadows are not darker, so in my case, I want the effect shadow off.