Except the same thing was said about the B767ER. Bob Crandall at American set out to destroy the B747 operators at Pan Am and TWA by flying the smaller B767 direct from the US into Europe bypassing the large US hubs.
Twenty years later, most of those routes are gone and AA is entrenching at Heathrow with ATI. The rise of the Alliances puts to bed a lot of point to point travel as it's cheaper to fly through a hub than is is to fly direct.
Given that the hub airlines will have loads of 787s as well, I don't really see it being a game changer as you hope.