Agreed. I fall into this trap more often than I'd care to admit. But I've comforted myself into thinking this is not limited to our field. Look at folks convinced that Romans knew how to make better concrete. Or that Damascus steel is somehow beyond current capabilities.

Are there gems that were lost in the past? Almost certainly. Could we have done better by not getting obsessed with constantly rewriting things into new languages? Debatable. My money is on not. And I hate js.