I think there is a beauty in a contact print that is different from a print made by projection. A well produced contact print, like EW's, have a wonderful luminosity and tonality, probably something to do with not having to go through another optical system (the enlarger).
Ansel Adams, in his book, 'Examples - The Making of 40 Photographs', writing about the image, 'Tenaya Creek, Dogwood, Rain', "Many years ago I made a print of this negative on a contact paper that when fully toned in selenium, had a marvelous colour. It is one of the most satisfactory prints I have ever made and have not been able to duplicate it with contempory enlarging papers. The paper I used might have been Agfa Convira or Kodak Azo"