Except that it's easy in PS to set the canvas color PS uses to surround the image when you zoom out such that it matches the paper color LAB value or perhaps be slightly darker gray, at which point the human visual system will not get fooled by any small bits of monitor white in various menu headers or tool bars.
Nope, that's not enough. You can got to go into full screen mode, hit the tab key to remove
ALL panels and dialogs and menu items and end up with just the image
alone, no tools or anything else (which again, doesn't undergo the simulation) to remove all the
incorrect white of the display. Doable. But now you can't edit the image: open up say Curves because you want to apply them: Boom, incorrect white is back.
Full-screen mode, no GUI whatsoever doable and fine if all you want to do is view the image soft proof while you compare the print in viewing booth. Forget any kind of editing, however.
Adjust the contrast ratio of the display calibration, Boom!
Everything displayed is now where you want white. And Black!
With regard to Karl Lang's article about the Sony Artisan, his examples were all about the benefits of matching monitor black point to a paper media black point without any further softproofing methodology.
It isn't Karl's article although it is his design (way back when) to
control contrast ratio and the results of the control over black. And White. As illustrated in the article images. In no way is this and soft proofing mutually exclusive by design.
I do see how monitor contrast reduction can be a viable approach for folks who don't want to go all the way with a rigorous screen to print matching approach facilitated by softproofing and simulate paper color or black ink modes.
Actually the opposite. It is why Karl's Artisan and i1P and NEC and Eizo, among others provide such controls. While so many others do not sadly.
Thus, it doesn't make sense to me that one can routinely achieve better screen to print matching by combining both methods as opposed to creating an accurate printer profile for your chosen ink and media and letting the soft proof with simulate color paper mode correct both whitepoint and blackpoint appearance on screen.
The contrast ratio can be '
controlled' by the profile, the display or a bit of both but one takes care of anything displayed and the other doesn't. All that matters is it is controlled to provide a match and it does. But when you do it with the display, you control the white of
everything on that display. And the "
make my image look like crap" issue goes away. And you can easily edit the image, with all the tools, without having to worry that the white of those tools affects the preview (soft proof).
It works. It's been done for a very long time. At least since the early 2000s when Karl designed the Artisan. For Black and White. For the entire ratio of the display. Other's followed Karl as I indicated. For good reasons.