Don't get me wrong...I love purple bikes...and gold graghics! (not that the grey 720s are ugly), but just what about a Trek 720 makes it better than....say a shiney new Surly Long Haul Trucker? Lugged frames are nice, but the Surly has a much wider and lower gear range, stronger headset, bottom bracket, indexed shifting, stronger rear hub...the list goes on.
As a guy who road back in the 80's and still has a few old steel rides hanging around--- I'm perplexed to why old bikes are better than the new ones. I love old bikes-- but the new ones are awful nice as well.