I do indeed agree that the modern lenses have become spec based monsters to appeal to a 'playing cards' form of one upmanship where one kid (er... photographer) matches his MTF score against the other and distortion % of XXX lens wins that of X lens by 0.1%.
Unfortunately, Pentax did things their own way for a long time with DA limiteds, smallish lenses and really got battered in the market for this. (ie. being seen as inferior by the consumers since all reviews will have show them up as lower spec'ed)
That said, I do believe that often, its the flaws and design trade-offs that give old lenses their character and its up to the photographer to make use of them.
Lower prices wrt modern ones is a bonus too.
Takumar 58/2.4
Takumar 100/2
CZJ Biotar 75/1.5