I think Remington "showed the way" when they abandoned the 30s and started applying the lessons learned during the war to sporting models. Reportedly, the 721, etc were killing the M70 on price, and WW was already losing money on them.
Evrybody likes nice guns but there's got to be enough folks willing to pay for them to keep them on the market. Possibly WW could have kept the original rifle in the line, at a premium, and made the push-feed to compete on the low end, but they went with the whole enchilada.
