I noticed I will have to go back into that file and combine several blacks. I used a process black, and two different spot blacks causing 3 different seps. Oops. :)
It stands to reasons that with any mesh, the smaller the thread, the better the open area but that's not always the case. You can have very thin threads but need (more of them) to maintain a certain level of durability/strength. S mesh seems to have a good handle on this with a new type of thread (I assume). It's a tad stronger than others, therefore requiring less of them.
More open area means more information. I've heard some crazy high lpi being used on what used to be known as low mesh. How well that actually comes out on the shirt (I haven't seen yet) but I believe the S mesh to be able to provide much more live area to hold small dots and/or more image. After all, It's not the emulsion that blocks small dots as much as it mesh threads. Decrease the mesh thread interference and you have more open area, more open area = more transferable image.
There are various formulations of emulsions that enable you to hold more detail/edge definition, longer production runs etc, but in general, if you take out the mesh, all emulsions will hold/expose extremely small dots like 1% in a 100lpi, if coated properly but you need something to support it such as mesh thread.