In this image, which blocks are soft powered?
I want to say "all rightmost cobblestone blocks and the redstone lamp", but a redstone torch hanging on a soft powered block should always be unlit, and that is not the case with the encircled one.
Minecraft – Which blocks are soft powered
minecraft-java-editionminecraft-redstone
Related Solutions
The confusion lies in the fact that there are two different types of power a block can emit. These are sometimes referred to as strong and weak power.
Weak power is given to a block under the conditions mentioned in the question, by having wire on top of the block or pointing into it. This will unpower torches, extend pistons, play note blocks and turn on lamps & repeaters.
Strong power is given to a block by having a lever on it, a torch underneath it or a repeater pointing into it. In addition to the abilities weak power has, it will also power redstone dust in an adjacent block.
A fully modular system inside a 3x3 or 4x4 (with 1 block/1 lamp per level) is impossible because of the lack of space to fit repeaters or redstone torches in a configuration that will still respond correctly to an on/off switch.
The tallest tower that I could make respond correctly to an on/off switch was this 3x3
Which uses an upside-down half slab in the middle and next to the unlit lamps and is powered by a redstone torch underneath a solid block (instead of a half-slab) in the middle of the bottom level
The smallest size of free standing tower that I could fit a fully modular system in was a 3x3 with 2 blocks and 1 lamp per level, controlled from the bottom
This is the first part of the control system (there's a redstone torch on the inside side of the block with the torch under it)
This is the second part of the control system (there's a solid block in the middle of the cross)
If you built the tower against a wall however, it is possible to fit a fully modular system inside an apparent 3x3 like this
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Best Answer
First let's clarify the distinction between hard/soft and strong/weak (the wiki conflates the two, confusing the matter):
All four lamps are active. The first is hard-powered (redstone signal can be pulled out), and strong-powered (powers redstone dust). The second one is hard-powered but weakly powered - power can be pulled out with a repeater, it can activate (soft-power) other blocks, but doesn't transmit power to redstone dust. The two right-side cases are both soft-powered (a.k.a. activated), one from strong, one from weak (but both hard-) powered cobblestone block. They act, they generate block updates and change block state, but they don't emit redstone power, whether strong or weak.
A torch, to the sides and below, emits strong, soft power - it can power redstone dust and repeaters, but only soft-powers (activates) solid blocks. Upwards, it emits standard strong hard power.
Answering the original question, the three lower blocks in the original image are all soft-powered (there's no real distinction between strong/weak here, they emit neither). The top block is hard, weakly powered (receives power directly from redstone dust, activates the torch.)