I'm not a fan of many of the modern blended finishes with any number of unlisted components (sometimes as many as a dozen). They can obviously do the job of making the wood look nice, but if I'm finishing my own project I want to know what I'm putting on the wood, not be guessing at ingredients and how they might fare over time.
If you can stomach the smell and don't mind the drying time you could wipe on a couple of layers of diluted varnish, wiping away some or all of the excess. This is the simplest and easiest route to excellent water resistance and improved resistance to knocks and scrapes. Wiping on poly won't change the colour much, just give it that finished wood look, and the more you dilute it the less it will change the colour.
You could just oil it, that provides more than adequate protection for many pieces (particularly in hardwoods) and can be easily touched up or refreshed in years to come if need be. But most oils you'd use will darken the wood quite a bit.
