It certainly seems a pity that we have failed to modernise our light piston engines since WWII and have been running essentially the same dinosaurs since then, virtually unchanged.
This is roughly equivalent to modern cars being powered by the engine from a grey Ferguson tractor on the sole basis that it is reliable and there was "no call" to modernise it.
The white heat of technology went cold in the late '30s as far as light aviation propulsion is concerned, and is only now beginning to warm up again.
If Honda can build utterly unbreakable, utterly reliable, lightweight 150BHP engines for motorbikes it seems a shame they haven't done the same for aircraft.
Show me one modern car engine (even V12...) which can do 180HP at 2000rpm.
er...Jaguar XKR for a start. There must be more as the Jag is far from an extreme engine, though blown.