Datacolor User to User Support Group.

Cutting to the chase, my questions are (1) Whether I can get a better BW print using Epson ABW printing and a profile developed specifically for use with ABW printing, or using a grayscale profile built with Spyder3Print for use with a standard "Color" mode printing workflow on my Epson 4800?  (2) If ABW has advantages (better linearity, or otherwise), what's the best way to build an ABW profile?
BACKGROUND:  To my surprise, I found the other day that using Eric Chan's 3800 ABW profile for Innova Ultra Smooth on my 4800 produced a significantly better print than simply using my Epson 4800 ABW print dialog (same ABW settings except the "straight" ABW print used the Innova recommended paper type and "Printer Manages Colors," while the Eric Chan print used his recommended paper type and "Photoshop Manages Colors" with his 3800 profile.  
Naturally that made me want to explore building (or buying) an ABW profile specifically for my 4800.  Exploring that, I've found (1) a rather confusing -- to me -- thread in this group (@Jan. 2008) where CDTobie (of Datacolor, of course) indicates, as I understand his messages, "Yes, you can build an ABW profile with Spyder3Print (or predecessor product), but it's less flexible and no better than a regular profile built for use with the normal color printing workflow," and (2) a somewhat later thread in another group with a detailed workflow suggestion for building ABW profiles using a competitor's spectrophotometer and the QTR B&W test strip, with messages in the thread from CDTobie indicating how to accommodate that workflow to use the DataColor products (without commenting, so far as I can see, on whether the ABW profile workfliw will produce a superior result).