That's just refuting my point by stating the opposite. In fact jetliners don't really improve like you posit. Boeing's own high tech superplane (in a different market segment) is in fact only a "mildly significant" improvement over the 767 that it most directly replaces. In fact the 767 remains in production because existing operators don't want to switch to the 787 yet: the cost of running a mixed fleet is higher than the efficiency savings of the new jet.

That's the kind of market Bombardier was aiming at. And it's a bad bet, protectionism or no. It's very likely this plane would have failed regardless.