This is the statement you made in your post, with which I am disagreeing: “Resistor ladder, digital or electronic controls do not sound as good, even if they are more linear or convenient.”
I often see statements claiming superiority of one technological solution over another, when, in my experience, it typically depends on how the technologies are implemented. Linear vs switched-mode power supplies are a case in point. I believe the same is true of using resistor ladders for volume control. My Auralic Vega G2 has a fully passive relay-driven resistor ladder. Far from cheap, indeed this is an expensive way of doing things and accounts for a good deal of the price difference with its junior cousin, the Vega G1. The point about the S1 is that Naim obviously think a resistor ladder is the best solution for their best preamp and the 272 shows it can be done in a classic box, so I don’t see why SQ considerations mean they couldn’t put one in any future versions of the classic-series preamps.
Roger