In this day and age of name brand jeans & tee shirts the lugged steel bike still have some mystique. I have a modern Columbus Foco steel and a TiC bike. That said I also have a 1969 Cinelli, and 2 SLX lugged Greg Lemonds (PreTrek) both built by high quality Italian builders. Love the ride on all the bikes but, to me the lugged steel frames have more character and a terrific ride quality...they're just a little heavier. There are a number of builders who still make high quality lugged bikes out of the latest steel tube sets like Waterford, Torelli, Mondonico, Columbine, even Eddy Merckx has a limited run of Lugged Steel SLX frames that he is selling this year (2K$ for the frame...and they are selling!!!).
Most riders today haven't had the experience of a lugged steel frame. Lighter is better in the Peleton and most marketing is geared that way. The funny thing is that most riders today can stand to make up the difference in personal weight for example I could lose 1.5 SBWs (SBW = Standard Bike Weights) and become a much improved rider. To me a high quality lugged steel frame is aesthetically appealing whereas the modern oversized tubes and OLCV bikes need the NASCAR decals to sex them up and hide the shaped tubing. I don't think that the Ti bikes have much character so I painted mine British Racing Green. I guess I am from the old school of plain black bike shorts and minimal shirt bling.
I will have to close by saying that when I take my lugged frames on rides and stop by shops with very experienced mechanics they always come out and drool over the older frames especially the 1969 Cinelli.