Thanks. I did some more experimentation and noticed that when I was pushing colors to extremes to exaggerate the effect, I never pushed chroma as much as saturation because the slider of chroma goes to 50% where the slider of saturation goes to 100%. I mistakenly assumed that saturation was resulting in a worse look. Going for a similar result using chroma by manually entering higher numbers results in brighter reds and blues that appear neon-like, as you mentioned. So saturation as implemented in the great color science in Ansel is the better way to go.

Color equalizer would indeed be a great solution to be able to push saturation some more while avoiding the saturation effect on skin tones. Until then I can distinguish on luminance using the sliders or use filters.

Of course the proper color calibration and lighting conditions also have an effect on saturation on skin tones. I have one photo where a few people have a warmer reflected light on them than the main people of interest. When pushing the saturation the warmer lit people become orange rather quickly compare to the ones for which the color correction is set.

If somebody else has tips or suggestions I'm happy to learn them.