Trouble understanding 3DSMax Gamma and Lut

madmuffin

I am trying to follow this tutorial: https://www.3dtotal.com/tutorial/1531-linear-workflow-a-guide-3ds-max-v-ray-by-dave-fleet-workflow-formats-gamma?page=1 that explains light and gamma, but I've always had this problem every since Max introduced default gamma being 2.2 My scenes are always this extremely washed out grey color with no black to speak of.

I do not understand lighting well enough to get the results I desire. I thought if there's only one light that anywhere the light isn't casting should be black, but on default gamma and lut, that never happens, despite there being no lights to be possibly illuminating those areas. How do I set this up the way it would look in real life?

EDIT: For some reason, my global illumination value was set to a 50% grey by default which was totally screwing up my scene. I never set that option in this scene so I have no idea why it defaulted to on.