Much has been said, and I agree with the above. Prep. is the key, always.
Since the claying step where you start creating a smooth foundation, polishing to a high gloss is, like said above, represents 99.9% of your end results.
Working over your smooth base, you may want to remove the defects (compounding / heavy polishing step), and whenever needed, polish the surface finely, to a high gloss (polishing / finishing step).
At least from my experience, when I achieve perfection by polishing, LSP used adds little to the final look.
It'll all depend on what color/paint you're working on.
Some harder paints with lighter colors like silver may get that final look after a good compounding step with your orange pads.
Some softer, and darker colors (like black) may get that final look after a secondary or tertiary polishing step. It's not a rule, since I've finished hard black paint with a compounding step many times, however, for the soft, I had to go softer as I could using a finishing polish and a red LC flat pad (one of the softest pads possible).
A good finishing polish (like Menzerna SF4000 or SF4500) paired with the softest pad you have will give you the finish desired when needed further refinement, specially on softer paint systems.
The LSP will be the icing on the cake.