Interesting observations and valuable thoughts Bob!I happen to have an Ansel Adams print purchased from him directly in the 1960s.
I use it for reference.
Mostly I would say that I can come almost as close as I want to those as far as print quality is concerned. The biggest issue is getting a DMax close enough to Silver Bromide so that under identical lighting conditions the reflectance range can be matched. Of course, there is the issue of selenium toning which imparts a rather rich color to the blacks which can be mimicked in PS but it depends a bit on the ink-set used.
I would have said it was "pretty close" with Harman FB AL, but that surface is distracting. Exhibition Fiber is perhaps the closest I have seen.
Of course I am viewing both prints in a lighting booth so it is a fair comparison.
I would say also that when we shoot digital, and expose to the right, that in those cases where the camera's DR is bigger than the subject, we tend to be placing blacks on the straight-line part of the curve. Zone System processing very carefully exposes for the blacks (or near blacks) and then adjusts the curve to get the beginnings of gentle roll-off in the highlights.
When processing digital to get the best film-mimic look, I would say that exposure is very important, and that exposing a bit less that ETTR would imply is necessary, perhaps 1/3-2/3 stop but no less.
Digital gets into trouble mostly because it is very hard to do the equivalent to N-1 processing without losing something. N+1 is easy.
-bob
Dave (D&A)