Evo 7
It is a little confusing that MALR and ELR are presented in such a similar way in many texts.
The moist (or saturated) adiabatic lapse rate is, in effect, a law of physics. If you change the pressure of a parcel of air without allowing heat to flow in or out, the temperature will change by a predictable amount. It varies with the temperature you start from, but not from day to day.
The environmental lapse rate of 2 degC/1000 ft is a day-to-day 'average', which is also used to define the international standard atmosphere.
If you look at an . .<a href="http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html" target="_blank">Atmospheric Sounding</a> you'll see that the real temperature profile of the atmosphere can be nothing like the smooth 2 degC/1000 ft average. It's a jaggy line that goes all over the place.
The shape of the real environmental lapse rate, not the day-to-day average, determines the stability of the atmosphere and the convective cloud bases and tops.
Hope that helps.