i would hardly call a rivendell atlantis a poorly riding, unreliable piece of art. rather, it is a finely crafted, incredibly well behaved, under load and sans load, bike, that happens to be drop dead gorgeous. that is good design.
I'll maul this but: buckmister fuller said something like: if i design something that works but isnt beautiful i did something wrong.

in defense of british cars: they were never ever designed to be driven (on a daily basis) the vast distances that amerians drive daily. nor were they designed for our climate. we pushed them well beyond thier limits, and failures abounded. perhaps a better analogy would have been wood floors, or italian hiking boots or hell, wool jerseys.