What kind of camera are you using? I've been trying _hard_ to switch from Lightroom to Darktable and so far I have been failing to even match the output of in-camera JPEG engine of my Canon 5D Mk4... The skin tone is just not there... like it knows what highlights are and what shadows are but loses something in the middle. Well-lit RAW are fine, but when the light is challenging I always get better results in Lightroom or Canon's RAW converter (or even in-camera JPEGs) although that's actually when RAW is supposed to help the most.
You may have to experiment with different base curves or even make your own one. I don't know much about the underlying theory but I lamented how I couldn't push the shadows in Fujifilm files (halos like hell) and people suggested that I should make my own basecurve and that would help a lot. My new camera has an excellent base curve that hasn't needed any adjusting.
I tried installing ML on my T5, but then it was stolen by roommates. How long have they supported T5i? It seemed to be a very convoluted process, and I had no luck, but also mine was T5, not T5i.
Not sure how long it's been supported. At least 2 years! For me it was surprisingly easy actually. I just copied the files over to the SD card, inserted it, and ran Firmware Upgrade from the camera menu. It worked great and I love the intervalometer and other neat features.
