Here is a radical idea.

Question: How useful are the smoothScale channels in the fingers and hands?

I just did a quick test. I deleted all the smooth scale channels in the fingers and hand, except the one that relates to the ForeArm. This allows the use of normal 'scale' via ERC, without the deformations brought in by the smoothScale channels.

It seems to me that smoothScale channels often cause more problems that they solve, and that this is particularly true of the hands and fingers. So why not just delete them (except ForeArm_smooX)?

I only did a quick test, and this idea undoubtedly needs to be investigated more deeply, but on the face of it, deleting the smoothScale channels looks like a good idea to me, as it seems it would allow ERC scaling for D|S users.