Is this where we are stuck?

Scenario 1: the capital loss is not "needed" but still is used, because there is reportable income, even though it is below a certain taxable threshold.

Scenario 2: the capital loss is not fully used, because the ending reportable income is 0 without using all of it.

Effective results:

Scenario 1 = you cannot defer using all the loss, because it hasn't taken them to 0, yet.

Scenario 2 = the unused loss is automatically carried forward, because they hit 0 and still had value in that loss to use later.

Are these the two walls we seem to be bouncing off of, back and forth?