Depends on what you mean by 'digital hardness'. If you mean artificial electronic harshness (think early brickwall filters as prime examples) then I agree that the absence thereof is a good thing. Yet if you mean the absence of any hardness in the sound, this would be a bad thing, because unrealistic. Just two weeks ago on vacation I went to a concert in Austria with large orchestra, sitting quite close to it; the orchestra was excellent. The hardness of brass sound was up to the level of what many would feel, when reproduced on a system, as 'ouch', and though not always in that intensity, I hear such hardness from live brass very often, except in the smoothest sounding venues. I do not find systems that are incapable of portraying such hardness attractive in any way. Smoothness at all costs does not cut it for me. Live music is not 'smooth'.
Analog often sounds 'rounder' and smoother than it should -- some mistake this for greater 'musicality' -- yet thankfully it is not always so. On the very best turntables I have heard, and with the very best recordings/pressings, also analog is capable of portraying the natural hardness of the sound of live music. Good digital does that routinely, under absence of artificial harshness (that great analog can be superior to digital in other areas is a different matter).
