Scene 1 is set up nicely.
I want to duplicate it, but I want to choose which objects, lights, etc. should be linked to the new scene.
In Scene 2, I now have linked objects.
But choosing to “Make Duplicates Real” or “Make Local” does nothing to make them independent. If I make “Plane” local, it’s still the same reference to the Plane in Scene 1. If I change the Plane object in scene 1, I can see the changes appearing in Scene 2.
I want a copy of the plane.
But I don’t want to do a FULL COPY of the Scene because there’s lots of stuff in it that I don’t want.
Best solution? What works here? Make Local and Make Duplicates Real don’t do the trick.
This is likely to change when collection overrides become a thing (on or after 2.81). But for now, you should be able to do the same thing that you would do in 2.79. That is, you link the object between the two scenes and then you can make the object have a single user (click the Users number in Object Properties). You’ll have to do the same for the mesh data and materials as well. Otherwise edits on one scene will show up on both.
I just tested it and it seems that functionality isn’t fully working in 2.80 as it does in 2.79. So as a workaround, I might suggest that you just copy and paste objects between your scenes.