Is modern really better? If you are waiting on a compile, or running the latest game or - other performance critical task of course it is. However for embedded systems older processes are likely to result in chips that operate longer under harsh conditions and so may be better. It depends on the application.

I know where I work we have customers that run our products at -70C and +50C, we can't run a lot of modern chips because they fail our tests at those operating temperatures.