What I found interesting was his statement about scans being the hardest when the film is dark and has low contrast.

Duh... An underexposed piece of film will not print well either. Even though there is more latitude in a traditional darkroom, the bottom line is that there is no substitute for a good exposure.

It would be nice if there was a publication date as some of his references made me think that the information was not real current.

I will say that I have tried the soft focus thing before as my scanner allows for manual focus adjustment, and that it can help. However, it is a trade off, and the amount of noise reduction gained does affect the overall image sharpness and tonal qualities.

It is still best to stick with ISO 160 or lower speed films if you intend to scan most of your work and expect high quality prints.