In that there seemed to be a degree of interest, I thought I'd put on record this week's impressions of scanning software I've tried.
Kooka -- as previously noted, it is just about impossible to establish a workflow. Works, in an emergency.
EpsonScan2 -- segfaults at launch, which many of us would find a significant limitation.
SimpleScan -- lacks configuration options and just, well, simple.
IScan -- the original Epson native scanning application. Works well, but for instance when saving it starts with ~/ *every single time,* so you spend more time navigating your hard drive than actually scanning.
GIMP -- nothing is simple with the GIMP, and scanning is no exception. I apparently have the plugins installed correctly -- itself an ordeal -- but haven't yet found a way to get GIMP to scan.
Skanlite -- a surprise, and the current winner. Offers both image settings and applicating settings. Assumes that there's a good chance that it you saved the scan you made 90 seconds ago in a particular directory, you might want to save the one you made just now in that directory. Very much like the much better Windows version of the native Epson software. Unlike any non-VueScan Linux scanning software except IScan, can scan transparancies. KDE native, so it doesn't download half the Synaptic Debian repository. Has weird resolution settings, though, somewhat inexplicably but there might be a reason.
Anyway, if your scanner is SANE-compliant, Skanlite seems the way to go. Apparently last built when KDE was doing whatever they were doing in 2020.