There is nothing 'wrong' with the classics. Look at the job Norwegian have done with theirs.
In the business, momentum is often a key driver. One starts with "classics" and moves up and expands with new aircraft. Ryanair began with One Elevens, moving to B737-200s then lots of B737-800s. Even Jet2 have moved onto the B737NG. Contrast with post LH owned Baby who continue to retract into core markets, in their own comfort zone. They are too fond of the Patented Airliners.net Magic Dartboard of Route Planning. Sporadic and random incursions into both business and leisure markets on random days with schedules that are often unreliable mean to many, they are a bit of a joke.
Even in their key markets, they are walking away from Manchester of all places, mainly because it's "not in the Midlands". To reiterate, they can't make money on leisure out of MAN, the #2 leisure market in the whole UK. That's not a strategy, that's a reaction. LH have been focusssing on tweaking all that's good about BMI mainline in order to put the LHR operation back into sustainable profitability. They have not put a lot of attention onto Baby while they look after the parent. My concern is that when they finally do focus like a German laser beam on Baby, the answer to the question "Why bother?" isn't a good one.