ABIW:
You seem to have taken my observations as some sort of personal slight - couldn't be further from the truth.
All I was trying to allude to is that whilst the 'Drivers, Airframes' have all the bells/whistles/gucci kit upstairs on your machine, nobody seems to have given very much thought to the poor old guy/gal down the back.
The C17 is arguably a lesson on what can be achieved downstairs if a little thought went into it.