Epson are in a better position to write a sharpening algorithm for their own scanners, since they know what the point spread function will look like for their specific lens/CCD combination, and thus can use deconvolution assisted sharpening. Photoshop is clueless about this and can only do basic sharpening (although their "smart sharpen" to some degree works like deconvolution, but with an estimated PSF).

So do Epson do this? I do not know, but Epson are not ignorant about deconvolution.
http://www.comm.utoronto.ca/~kostas/...roceed/138.pdf
(the above article is about another use of deconvolution, motion blur reduction)

It is of course possible that they do deconvolution but not linked to sharpening, or that they do none at all. I'm just saying that I'd test it and compare it with the other options. I should do exactly that myself, it is time to look over my sharpening workflow...