Digital BW, The Print

I have been printing with my new Epson 3800 for about 1 month, and I
am a bit dismayed that the B&W prints I'm getting using the intrinsic
Epson driver (with or without third party profiles provided by Eric
Chan) are inferior to the B&W prints I get using ImagePrint with my
Epson 2200 printer. Admittedly, the prints are far superior to the
intrinsic Epson driver for the 2200, but I would have thought that
after 3-4 years of R&D, you guys would have figured out why ImagePrint
is so superior to your driver. Also I have found that the color
profiles provided in the driver vary in their quality. You guys are
apparently aware of this situation, since you are offering the Bill
Atkinson 7600/9600 profiles on your website and state that "in most
cases, these custom ICC profiles will provide much better color and
black and white print quality than with the standard profiles already
shipping with every printer". I don't understand why it is so
difficult for a company that is totally devoted to printing to create
the best possible canned profiles for their own printers and papers.
You would likely prevent numerous defectors to third party papers, if
you created the best possible profiles for your own papers. If one
spends >$1000 for a printer, they should not then have to scour the
internet for profiles or third party drivers to get the best possible
prints. The Bill Atkinson profiles do not work well for the 3800, and
thus the 3800 users are left out in the cold for accurate color profiles.
I have also found it confusing that you have discontinued Epson
Enhanced matte and Archival Matte
papers and yet these profiles are still in the driver software. If the
Ultrapremium presentation matte is the same as Ep Enhanced which I
thought was the same as Archival matte, then why are there separate
profiles in the driver for Enhanced matte and Archival matte? The
profile/paper combo for premium luster is superior to that for the
Enhanced matte profile/ultrapremium presentation matte paper combo,
but both could be improved. 
The enhanced matte profile in concert with Ultrapremium presentation
matte paper is particularly poor with muddy/blocked-up shadow areas. 
Perhaps you should pay Bill Atkinson to create some color profiles for
the 3800 or better yet, Epson should purchase Colorbyte.
Thanks
Kevin Monroe