G'Day:
For what it's worth, I have the Epson V750M, plus the excellent aftermarket BetterScanning dot com negative holders, and it does the job for me.
Scanning 'flat' 6x6 or 6x7 using Silverfast gives me huge files to work with; then throw in some Optipix adjustments, and I'm OK. That is, it works for me.
Anything I put online gets crushed back to JPEG at 72dpi, although I optimise it via CS2. And for prints via the R2400, out to 13x19, I am very happy. It works for 35mm also out to 10x8 at least, although less forgiving. (Rubbish in = rubbish out).
And that's the point of it I guess. It works very well for me up to my present needs. Horses for courses. If you have need of more, spend more and get more. (Or send the selected images out for scanning.) Of course you can hang out for better technology ... and hang out ... and hang out. Start scanning !
Colin
PS About Fluid mounting (Aztek etc). The newer fluid is not messy. Once again, although I have that 'technology', I rarely use it because there is no real need. (Works great with old scratched negs etc)