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I invite you to do a bit of googling on your own, there are amazing bikes built by contemporary custom frame builders which also build 'off the shelf' for their own catalogues like Ritchey ( Road Logic ). If you don't know where to start, the Road forum has a thread with modern steel bikes, that's a good starting point.

Regarding old frames, I see them as a stepping stone with the technology moving on to TIG, but it is all building on top of what was possible back then with lugs. If we are talking pure looks, one can argue that some lugged frames are very beautiful like the Battaglin Portofino (then someone posts the bikes above lol ) but from a technological POV, they're way back in 1980 (excluding Portofinos, those are modern and wicked). Arguably, both quill and 1 1/8 have produced a number of crimes against the sense of sight itself and should have never seen the light of day, but this is not a a-head only or unicrown issue by no means.

For carbon is a given but I find it amazing that this is possible with steel. Rob English for example puts alot of time and effort into R&D so his bikes are not just polish queens, they actually ride very well and the ride is tunable to customer's spec. Again, amazing..

My opinion etc etc.