Pop quiz: Which of these describes an unprocessed raw image?

1. The initial preview generated by the camera, seen briefly in Lightroom
2. The initial preview rendered by Lightroom
3. The state after applying the General - Zeroed Develop Preset
4. None of the above

Before I give away the answer, let's discuss the differences between these.

The camera has a built-in raw converter. It generates the JPEG preview that is shown on the camera's LCD, which is embedded in the raw file and is used to calculate the histogram displayed by the camera. This raw converter is affected by various in-camera settings like white balance, saturation, sharpness, etc.

Lightroom briefly displays this embedded JPEG preview before rendering one of its own, using its own defaults modified by whatever Develop preset you might apply at Import. Lightroom defaults to non-zero slider settings for Blacks, Brightness, Contrast, Point Curve, Sharpening, and Noise Reduction. If you apply the General - Zeroed Develop Preset, these all go to zero.

So which one is the real, unadulterated, original image? The answer is None of the above. In fact, there is no such thing.

A raw file is just a set of bits, data directly off the sensor along with some metadata to go with it. It doesn't actually look like anything until it is processed by a raw converter -- there is no visible image. Each raw converter makes its own decisions about what the sensor data mean; there is no one correct interpretation, and no untouched version of a photograph from a digital camera.