Hi Ted,(posted 8177 days ago)I use medium format, and with the ability to change backs, can practice both N- and N+, but I have found that N- works great most of the time - very minimal grain, nice middle values, shadows always preserved, and a soft look. Even in low contrast situations, I still prefer N-, and then, as you state, I simply use a higher grade paper of filter when printing. I usually expose at N-1.5 or N-2, so my development times are short, about 3 minutes.
You wrote that extended processing causes a loss of sharpness, but in my experience I find that it increases sharpness , which is probably a reason some people use N+. People wanting a very grainy look to their prints will also want to process at N+.
When you are exposing at N-5, what developer do you use? It must have a very long immersion time, because you would have to decrease your development by about 10 minutes.