I tracked down this disclaimer in the manual: 48-bit scanning is Windows-only.
However, thanks to the comments below: I've confirmed VueScan is able to produce 48-bit TIFF scans on macOS. (I had tried it and couldn't find the setting, but failed to notice the very important "Options: Standard" vs. "Options: Professional" on the "Input" tab. Got to switch to "Professional" to unlock 48-bit options: "Input -> Bits Per Pixel" and "Output -> TIFF file type".)
