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First, I wholeheartedly agree that my vague recollection of a study I read five years ago is not convincing.  The context of said study is important, which was trying to find out why some players didn't convert to MLB well even though they had the MiLB OPS to indicate they could hit.  I have no memory of walk rate being a part of the discussion. 
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Regarding the why contact rate could be an important marker independent of eye; I believe that it is a proxy for ability to square up the ball.  So if someone has a high strikeout rate, but also walks a lot and has a high line drive rate (or batting average as a potential proxy), then I want to go watch a week of his at-bats to see if he is just a hitter that patiently awaits his pitch and then nails it.  If someone has a high strikeout rate, but doesn't walk a lot and doesn't hit a lot of line drives (or has a low batting average), I'm concerned that I have a free swinger that can mash a centered Doug Fister fastball or a slider that doesn't break, but does have the pitch recognition ability to wait out his pitch and is in deep trouble squaring up pitcher's pitches.  
I also think that the pitch stalker archetype is going to struggle to transition to the MLB.  What qualifies as a good pitch to hit in the texas league doesn't come your way so often in the big leagues, whereas a see the ball hit the ball player may be putting good wood on tough pitches in the Texas league because he doesn't have the good sense to lay off it.  This helps the scout, because it can give them confidence that the hitter can do something valuable with a pitcher's pitch.  The problem, of course, is this hitter hasn't demonstrated the ability to distinguish a pitcher's pitch from a hitter's pitch (not many hitters can consistently punish pitcher's pitches in the majors. Just ask Jose Lopez.).
There are a lot of days when an MLB hitter doesn't get a single meatball pitch in a hitters count. Acquitting yourself with the bat on such a day is extremely hard, so it is important to have other things to offer. This also helps explain why TTO players get so little opportunity to make it.  They generally have the grace of a drunk rhino in the field and generally will wait out a mistake at the plate even if one is not in the offering.  
As an aside, I think Jack Cust passed these tests since he was Baseball America's 31st and 38th best prospect in pre-season 2000 and 2001, walked frequently, and generally ran fair to high BAs despite the K rate (~0.374 BABIP in the minors).