There are lots of great bikes in my local bike shop, and a few of them are steel. You'r problem is that you prefer 70s designs, and it's not the 70s.
Still you've got plenty of options. Either buy old bikes form the 70s which are plentiful and cheap, or get ready to take the extra effort to find a new bike that fits your antiquated tastes. It's not really THAT much extra work. pretty much every bikeshop in the land can get you a Surly or a Soma, and many stock them. Oh yeah I forgot Soma makes lugged frames too.
This seems like an awful lot of *****ing and moaning over a problem that really isn't that difficult to solve. It's hard to find bikes you like, because your tastes are outside the mainstream.
Every shop can't be expected to cater to your outdated tastes. So you may have to travel a little further to find a shop that does, or deal with mail order. Deal with it. There are children in China who don't even HAVE bicycles, although some of them may have made yours.