ppppilot, I think you've lost me.
I don't believe this is an issue of increasing aircraft technology vice obstacles. My post was intended to differentiate between those aspects of intial climb that are analysed (one engine inop) and those that typically are not (all engines operating).
I do not, in fact, see this as primarily an obstacle issue at all. Indeed, the worst case scenarios of non-compliance with SID gradients occur with that gradient is established for non-obstacle reasons, such as noise, military area avoidance or inbound traffic routing. In these cases, the performance engineer will reference obstacle data for the engine out case, finding a relatively shallow, safe path, while not dealing with an extreme all engine climb requirement.
I hope this clarifies a bit.
Vs