Spindle moulder is the best possible tool for accurate repro of period
mouldings

It's not bad if you're doing a big cyma but you'll never get as good a
reed from a spindle as you can with a single bladed hand tool.

Yes you can - spindle moulder does very fine work large or small and is
much more consistently perfect than a hand tool, and quicker! Much
Victorian and earlier joinery was done with spindle moulders - with
"french" cutters its an old and primitive tool found alongside lathes
and saws at woodworking mills

Besides
which, how do you do neat stopped mouldings ? A spindle might be the
easiest way to do repro mouldings, but surely the "best possible tool
for accurate repro" is to use the same hand plane they were cutwith
originally.
Stopped mouldings same prob whatever you use i.e. you have to cut in to
start and pull out to stop, then finish the ends by hand. Just the same
with a spindle moulder. And router too, though most people leave the
ends bodged as you can't tell from a distance