Ladies and Gents,
I think its irrelevant as to the choice of engine that an airline may make. If they had SR-71 power plants or the RR it makes no odds apart from learning new parameters.
Ultimately it will have been a numbers game between GE and RR. This one RR won, lest we not forget the GE win on the 77W after the RR performed - well I do not wish to say awfully but not far off it when the 772/3 came out. Win some loose some...
I think really whats important here is not what engines are on the airplane but whats going on inside the airplane and the bouncy castle because that affects people more