That's a really nice example, great find.
The Project 7 is one of my many late 80s/early 90s grail bikes. As you noted it's only a footnote in MTB history but I think as we move forward into the future it's role will be reappraised as a more significant milestone. Bianchi had a relatively strong marketing campaign for their "700c Mountain Bike" (advertisements in Winning, Bicycle Guide, etc) but the limited tire availability IIRC due to manufacturers in Asia unable to make larger 700c tires at the time mostly for technical and economic reasons - kept it from being able to achieve anything more than a niche alternative to 26" models. By the late 1990s/early 2000s 29er development was further along and from what I can tell the Project 7 was a proof of concept the bigger players in the emerging space looked at closely.