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What a brilliant, practical and erudite comment. I am going to freely steal your phrase 'it will get what there is to bring' since it seems to be such a very fine coining!The Nikon is an excellent lens, really nothing to complain about.
The only problem I have with the lensrentals tests is they determine the line count at which one stop (50%) of the contrast is lost. (MTF50) With a camera that has 14 stops of dynamic range this isn't really all that relevant, and the general notion that loss of global contrast implies loss of resolution and microcontrast only goes that far. For instance, vignetting will affect MTF50, and drop-off is rarely linear since aberrations aren't. And some aberrations, like chromatic aberration, has only limited impact on MTF. Finally a lens-camera combo that has an MTF50 close to 1000 line pairs is guaranteed to outresolve the camera well below extinction, so for all practical purposes it will get what there is to bring. Noise permitting you can just bump up contrast a little in post - which you would anyway to print since the attenuation in the printing process can be quite severe. Some printers practically require B&W line art at anything over 200 ppi or it won't show. Of course, for such small detail it also doesn't matter whether it's accurately reproduced in terms hue and tone; it's more a "there or not" thing.