Actually, it wouldn't have survived if Ernie Ball hadn't saved it. It was tanking when they bought it.
True, although it would not have been sellable if the design was poor.
Also interesting is that inspite of the updates, the market created enough demand of the original design that it made sense to manufacture the Classic Series. This demand must be stable or increasing based on the annoucement of the Sterling 34 Classics.
Bottom line is that both are available at fair prices with very high QC; great time to be a bassist.