I think a lot of this standover stuff was originally initiated by the CPSC, when they started saying people had to have one inch of clearance for a properly fitted/safe bike. Once this happened, bike companies more or less had to toe the line, otherwise putting themselves at risk of being sued for selling "unsafe" products. Rivendell is one of the makers that clearly chafes at this and while they make a big deal about PBH and what their very liberal definition of one inch of clearance is, you can practically hear them muttering under their breath that standover doesn't matter and you should buy a bike like they used to be sized in the 70's.

Speaking of that, when I look back at old fuji catalogs, you see that a lot of the models were offered in 21", 23", and 25", e.g, small, medium, and large. So a 58 cm or so was considered medium then, suitable for a guy of average height like me at 5'9". And that is around the size I ride, which doesn't allow me anything approaching a flat-footed standover. But it is no big deal, at stops, the bike is tilted, usually w/one foot in the pedal.

I went through the deal in the 90's for a little while riding 21" or so bikes and I'm real glad to have come back to larger ones and ignored the CPSC.