Nice one. We were up the week before and were not that fast. We also had to dodge a pretty good barrage from one of the gullies approaching the black towers.
I think that the advise that you are giving is right on. For me the climbing on the black towers didn't seem much harder than any of the other scrambling - I think you are right to suggest that keeping close and unroped is probably the safest. We had the rope out simuling and it never got hard enough to warrant it. Ditto on the rock shoes.
For us after the one steep pitch on the little step and some scrambling we headed right on a ledge when we shouldn't have, and climbed three pitches of the worst rock I've ever climbed. After a pitch and a half it was obvious that the route was a scramble out to the left but by the time we worked it out it didn't seem worth trying to get over to it. I guess the moral for the route is if it is more than a low fifth scramble and isn't the little or big step you are off route. Thanks for the report.