Bike porn

All of which are shit next to 2011 Deore. It comes down to a question of whether it's for riding or for looking at - those bikes are retro porn, and they belong here the same way hairy muffs belong on porn sites, but you might not get such a good ride from somebody whose heyday was 1993

Not entirely true but I get your drift. The components still are expensive and exotic, maybe even more so than then they were new. The finish and attention to detail is still better than on 2011 Deore, and I'm sure Deore parts will be a fair bit heavier than some of the high end retro components. Ofcourse contemporary discs are miles ahead of cantis as far as stopping power goes, but that doesn't take away from the craftmanship and ingenuity of any of the parts or the bike as a whole.
The same really doesn't apply to the frames though, you'd have to be one hell of a rider to actually get any benefit at all from riding a modern xc hardtail frame over an early ´90s Klein.
I'm not saying an old Klein is better at being a mountainbike than a contemporary Trek Top Fuel for instance, but it´s certainly as desirable to a lot of folks and calling the creme de la creme odf early to mid ´90s engineering "shit" is just ignorant. Plus Trek might not even have been able to produce such technologically advanced bikes if they hadn't bought Klein and their knowledge in the first place ;)
For the record by the way I own a pre-Trek Klein and although it's not as boner inspiring as the ones owned by Samu, the ride is brilliant, even in 2011.