There's are simultaneous themes that are traveling side by side in this thread.

One theme is the best way to render a B&W print on silver-gelatin paper. In my experience, if the exposure and development of the negative isn't reasonably on target, then no amount of adjustment of exposure or paper contrast in the darkroom is going to necessarily render an excellent print. It's not just about making the printing process easy. There might be this or that case where one can render an excellent silver-gelatin print with hard work from an improperly exposed or developed negative. But for my photography, in the majority of cases, if the negative isn't properly exposed and developed, it's game over! As I see it, that's why Adams liked to expose two sheets of film at the same exposure: so that he could have a second chance at proper development.

I'd like to make another point on rendering good B&W prints on silver-gelatin paper. Doing calibrations and testing is essential to determining proper development.

A second theme is rendering a good B&W image on digital media by scanning the negative. I haven't really made a good study of this. But I find that if I have a properly exposed and developed B&W for silver-gelatin, then I can get a decent scan to render a good B&W print on digital media.

Other themes relate to color photography. But my primary intent was to address B&W.