That question has come up in this forum before and the conclusion was the same as yours:
1. the IRS guidance on this is silent. No explicit guidance from the IRS has been found.
2. the common-expert guidance on using the scholarship penalty exception is that the distribution must be in the same year that the scholarship paid qualified expenses.
The scholarship exception is only for the 10% penalty on a non qualified distribution. The income tax is still due.
One loop hole available is to have the student treat the scholarship as taxable income (at his lower rate and maybe even 0%; the kiddie tax may apply) so that the parent can take an untaxed qualified distribution from the 529 plan.
