I enjoyed looking at the process you took to get the glowing effect in the first shot, @ernestf-lloyd. Removing the little distractions really does help. It appears that the natural warmth or softness of the scene was lost in the first edit, though. And I think the glow may cover too much of the scene. Perhaps if it was coming from the top of the frame it would appear more natural, since the light that is visible on the landscape appears to be coming more from overhead than on the horizon. The glow also almost feels like mist since it is purely white. The center of the glow needs to be white, but what falls over the elements of the scene should have a sort of golden hint I think.
The second almost-path photo does appear fake for a couple of reasons. 1) the center of the light source always needs to be pure white. 2) the natural starburst shape from the use of a narrow aperture is the shape that is visible, and yet in real life a starburst would never be that distinct that large. 3) in the natural world, it’s either starburst or glow, not both; a narrow aperture provides the starburst shape while a wide aperture would provide the amount of glow that is showing. 4) since it is not a natural looking starburst, perhaps it could be regular light rays through atmosphere, but in that situation the rays would be much longer.
Perhaps try doing some more experimenting. In your situation going for sunrays (vs a sunburst) might be better. And here’s another tutorial on that that might be fun to experiment with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfDyLwMtT-E