He has some interesting ideas but I think missed perhaps the fact that
for most people who are still using film the image is still going
through a digital image phase before being printed. From this
standpoint then the film image can and is manipulated as much as the
digital image.

In some respects he has missing much of the point of the digital
revolution in photograph. A huge part is that photographer can have
full control of how their color prints look, this is true either
scanning film or starting from an image from a digital camera. Even
for BW work having the image in a digital format gives one far more
control when with a wet darkroom.

"In the electronic age, I am sure that scanning techniques will be
developed to achieve prints of extraordinary subtlety from the original
negative scores. If I could return in twenty years or so I would hope
to see astounding interpretations of my most expressive images. It is
true no one could print my negatives as I did, but they might well get
more out of them by electronic means. Image quality is not the product
of a machine but of the person who directs the machine, and there are
no limits to imagination and expression."
~ Ansel Adams, An Autobiography, 1985.

Scott