I guess I could have worded that a little clearer, the point I was trying to make was that if you couldn't meet climb requirements 30 years ago with -7s slung on the airplane it would have nothing to do with what the airplane can to today.
I agree with your second paragraph that this is a classic case of needing to throw more money at the problem. What struck me as odd, though, is that this is the only type I've worked with which has this issue. On other types the information was always available without the need to purchase additional items.