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This is a really interesting picture and worth all the work you are putting into it. I like the second slightly cropped version. It does remove some of the distraction and seems to be less noisy and sharper. I suspect that further cropping might be counter productive. I don’t know if this would work, but my next step would be to work in LR using the brush tool to create a mask of the distracting elements. I would try modifying the color and brightness to have them blend in with the coloration of the octopus. My goal would not be perfection but removing enough of the distracting elements so that the viewer would not focus on it. I know LR and PS both offer AI tools to remove and replace distractions, but I would avoid using them. Good luck with your editing.