I know art and aesthetics are not part of hard nosed industrial logic, but the S61 was always a fine looking beast. It looked right, flew right and did exactly what it was designed to do and much more besides.
The A380 was ugly and excessive and was born into a world of improving efficiency and technology. Yes, it was a better Jumbo, but the Jumbo was always going to go the way of the freighter, and to design something that couldn't do that was very short sighted. I mean, the 747 was designed to compete (ho ho) with the C5A... but freight was part of the plan from day 0.
If you don't learn from history you run the risk not only of repeating it, but also of not repeating it.