Scraping and sharpening are two perennial debates; they return to 'collective consciousness' on forums like ours every few years. One aspect of the former practice is: is it necessary for woodworking tools? Over the last four decades, I've read umpteen articles on same. I remember (I think) Bob Loader of M.E.W. fame, writing that scraping was a necessary evil in precision engineering where "tenths of a thou" were important. Others, more wood-centred, particularly Japanese working afficionados, held the belief that 'three points of contact' were sufficient, and scraping the whole plane sole to a high percentage contact on a surface plate was tedious and unecessary, given the greater tolerances (relatively speaking) of timber.
The late, great, D.C. - amongst others - took a middle ground and rubbed their plane soles smooth(-ish) with abrasive on either a paper strip, or, emery powder and the like on a glass plate. Bill carter still practices a form of this with his lapping plate and paste approach to his plane soles.
I think it boils down to contentment and horses for courses. If the rhythmic, long-winded, scraping/testing regime gives you satisfaction, you love your hands impregnated with 'blue' and you've got the requisite surface plate, then do it. If you have other priorities and just want a workable tool, stick it on the sandpaper. Neigh problem, either way.
