I don't know what tone mapping is but I'm leaning towards the second shot.
I call a 1 exposure HDR tone mapped because 1 exposure is not exactly a HDR image.
Looks the same to me too.... Me thinks the emperor has no clothes.
Ah ok. So which is which here? It might be obvious but not to me. It does look like your Nikkor 70-300 is sharper than my Tamron at 300mm wide open. I never shoot mine there anymore because the results are much better stopped down and nearer to 250mm.
I'm sorry, I don't quite understand the "emperor" comment.