So this Ranger thing... 3.5

[Pluto]

... With Swift Hunter you'll only want 3 (maybe 4) levels of Scout and the rest Ranger. ...

I'm curious about this and I see it quite often.

Why do Swift Hunter builds so often favor Ranger levels to Scout?

6-8 levels Ranger, I can see: it lets Greater Manyshot come to the table by level 9.

But 9 or more?
Scout offers more feats, more skill points and more special abilities than Ranger.
Ranger offers almost indiscernably higher BA, a weak animal companion (not much better than a Handled Animal) and a hadnful of spell slots (but you're probably going to rely on wands for most spells anyway - the uses/day are just so low).

Is one of these Ranger benefits better than I give credit for?

Edit:

Wise to Your Ways: Applies your Favored Enemy bonus to your Saves vs. one Favored Enemy (pick Evil or Arcanist).

Wow. Good catch. That's an easy book to forget about.