I have a Nikon Coolscan 4000 from days of old. I was able to scan a 35mm at about 20 megapixels of data... and it fixed scratches and identified dust (my father has used it for the past several years to scan all of the old family photos - including those from his parents) and it works very well.
The big difference was in the amount of data in the blacks of a good slide film that you could pull out with a scanner. You can get a really wide dynamic range on the film by scanning it and pushing more or less light through it depending on the film.
There's also something... tangible or natural that film grain captures that I just don't feel with for digital.
For its time, 35mm + a good scanner was not something you could get near with digital cameras. The good DSLRs are there now for 35mm... and then I can argue with myself about the difference between the curves on film vs doing it in post in photoshop and the ease taking multiple photos vs getting one shot (or a bracket) and hoping and the cost of a good digital camera vs the cost of processing film... its arguments that you can see fought out in my camera bags.
And this is where I've scanned with an Epson scanner. I've got an older epson photo scanner. Its lid has a light in it (so it can transmit - and scan film). And it has a tray so that you can put 120 or 4x5 film in, secure it (without having it touch any of the glass and scratch) and scan a flat plane.
The thing I liked about film, was I knew what I was getting out of the box, and the images would largely take on the look I wanted based on my choice of film.
