I love the texture in the clouds on the first (processed) shot. It has darkened the foreground though as you have pointed out.
As for your crop question - yes, I'd crop in slightly off the right and the ground.
To fix the darkness - I'd use some local adjustments to keep the clouds as they are but retain the brightness in the ground. In fact, since you've shot
RAW you should be able to get the ground a bit lighter. I don't know what you use for editing. If photoshop - an adjustment layer with a mask would be sufficient. If you use lightroom, you could use the graduated filter option, or a local adjustment brush and paint it over the clouds. Push the
exposure down a bit on it and push the contrast up (which I expect you've done anyway) - this will only affect the clouds.
For my liking I think the foreground could stand to be a bit lighter. Since you've shot in
RAW you should be able to push it up a little. Again, local adjustment brush with a push up on the
exposure/brightness should do it.
Do you mind if I have a go at it and tell you what I did?