A couple of years back back I bought on fleabay a set of Ping I-blades, with the retrospecs they correspond pretty well to my old I3's, there only 1/2° stronger. The factory specs are 1/4" longer and 2 swingweight points haevier but I reshafted the I-blades with the same shafts and grips, same lenght and swingweight I have on my I3's to compare. So the only difference between the 2 sets was the clubheads with almost 20 years of better designs, technology, use of better materials and different marketing between them, I couldn't tell which 34(1/2)° 7i performed better. Just had the impression the old I3's had a slightly better feel on mishits, but that could be me just being more familiar to them.
shokosugi Like drivers my guess is that forgiveness is much better in the newer tech.
Indeed, if you look for the most forgiving club you can find on the market old school and new tech are uncomparable, but if you look for clubs with workability and some forgiveness to them, they already got it right 20 (or more) years back.