Scything is a lot of hard work! I am not much of a potato grower...no space here...but I do see youtubes of people who till , put down their potatoes, and cover them with hay or straw which makes work easier! I remember you talking about the scatter sowing method. Here, unless I do transplants of strong young plants, the sowbugs and pill bug destroy the seedlings.
I use the straw method for potatoes too, although I have to lay mesh fencing over the straw to keep it from blowing away. The potatoes still managed to bury themselves just deep enough that my heavy clay soil made them hard to get to.
I’m hoping that eventually I’ll get enough organic matter and biochar worked into the soil that it won’t solidify as much. We’ll see. My biochar-making system is being expanded this year, so I should have some decent amounts of it soon.