Hi Dave:
As Jordi said in his paper MST Script works really well and its main virtue is stellar profile improved by reducing stars size and with a single defect of decreasing the contrast of the image in comparation with a single Histogran Transfromation.
You can clearly see the difference on page 38 "Estirado Iterativo" with MaskedStrechTransform script and "Estirado Unico" as normal Histogram transformation.
On page 39 you can see the difference in the stellar profile. The stars are much smaller and not become saturated as well as with a single histogram strech.
With regard to background noise, whether you use the script or a single stretch you will have the same problem. If you do not have enough SNR the noise is going to "eat" faint details and cutting shadows with histogram is not the solution. The solution is to apply noise reduction algorithms where this exists and trying to protect faint details.
Best. Silvercup.