This is all well and good, but to get that kind of quality out of film you have to shell out for a drum scan or a professional C or R print with an enlarger.

This is all well and good, but to get that kind of quality out of film you have to shell out for a drum scan or a professional C or R print with an enlarger. You'll probably spend about $10 / roll for a contact sheet, and $40 / frame to get a print / scan that shows off this quality. Plus, your time, going down to a lab, dropping off, and picking up film. Then, you'll spend more $ on top of that archiving your film (and that expensive scan) perfectly for 20 years when ultra-super-drum scans are available at $2 / frame. In this fictional world, 20 years from now, if you're a pro your client no longer cares whether your image now looks better, they're done with it. If you're a stock photographer, you'll have to forgo the $0.001 iStockphoto is now paying out for full rights, and if you're an amateur your old photos are good enough. Worse is better, digital is better at the things almost everyone (including 99.9% of pros) care about.