How many Starships did Beech sell? How many Piaggio whatsits of similar configuration did they sell? Recovery of nonrecurring development and certification costs? enough said.
The new Boeing announcement sure looks sexy , but as has been pointed out accountants aren't sexy (don't I know)
The other problem with an aircraft that trades off high fuel burn for performnance is that the fuel costs are variable, sometimes extremely so. An aircraft that makes sense at, say, $1.50/gal becomes progressively less attractive as fuel prices go up and by the time it hits $2.00 a gallon they get white tails and parked in the desert. Given the uncertainties in the oil market it does not appear to be a prudent thing to trade fuel burn for the altitude/speed capability.
As far as the A-380 time will tell, but look at Mr. Boeing's order book... they are laughing all the way to the bank over the next few years. Moving from Seattle and diversifying...well not sure about theSeattle move but if your company was pretty much into one sector of manufacturing (airliners) and another almost similar area (military aircraft and systems) what would you want to do for your shareholders? A little diversification would get you an "A" on the exam at business school and that is who is running the company.