Actually, you'd be quite right! The last time I saw (took notice of) the 'classic' second-hand bike market, where bikes like, say, the Yam Fizzy moped, going for 4 figure sums, and my old GS550 is now a classic bike (with a 'classic' value to go with it!
).The word classic seems to have taken on a different meaning now, which to my untutored eye seems to be more to do with yet another market for 'collectors' where it's all about investment for personal gain in one form or another. My perception of this sort of thing, where what starts as an enthusiasts domain, gets recognised as being ripe for financial exploitation, regardless of the subject, and the modern evolved and refined methods of financial exploitation simply mean extracting the value as quickly as possible until a hollow shell is left, and in the process all the enthusiasts joy in it seems to be ruined in the main, and driven back into those unseen niche areas (and maybe not such a bad survival reaction?), but it's the usual M.O. of commercial strip mining, at the expense of the people who not only enabled the industry and did all the work to make those profits for others, while poorly rewarded (I'm being diplomatic when I say that) then ultimately sold off for scrap, as far as being a human goes.
I think we're so inured to it through 100's of years of the same pattern, we don't even see it for what it really is.
I can't remember most of the brit bikes of old, but that's more memory stuff rather than lack of interest, but a few stick out, because they had some extra significance. For instance, without my searching and comparing online, does that Sun/Villiers(?) look like a Beezer Bantam? Thing is, maybe because of how I am, I never took as much attention of things like makes and models, as other bikers. While the aesthetics were not at all meaningless, in fact often the opposite, but not for the same reasons as most others seemed to choose by, they were never afforded much importance over the actual riding of the things. It was, ultimately, the sensation of riding a bike that mattered overall, and everything else was secondary to that. The appreciation of engineering is a separate aspect, not dependent on being bikes.
Of the other, I have to confess to a dislike to that style of bodywork, there was a similar looking Triumph too (can't recall the model, but had a similar style to your pic.), tried to make the bike look like a scooter. But then my favourite style was mostly cafe racer, more on the minimalist side than many other styles.
Ultimately, much as I liked the 'feel' of classic Brit bikes, my biggest weakness was for Italian bikes, specifically my old 500 Sport Morini (and some of their other older models), and more than any of them, Moto Guzzi's. If I'd had the money back when I rode all the time, I'd have wanted a Le Man's Mk1 or 2, maybe 3. Those bikes were just things of pure beauty, everything about them was just priceless (I mean as a design, things like the electrics had a deserved bad reputation). The only big drawback was by the time I could have got one together, I was unfit to ride the thing safely. The riding position alone would have meant I couldn't have even turned my head backwards for a 'life saver', etc. How sad! Still, who knows, if I had got one, it may have killed me first time out!
I did also rather like riding the old BMW air-cooled boxer twin, specifically the R100RS, which was the first time I'd tried a fairing, and was most impressed to stay dry in the rain without waterproofs! This was the 'sport' version but the smaller fairing was so well designed, only top of the helmet, and elbows got wet! But that lovely thumper, that'd make the bike vibrate left and right (transverse I think?) on tickover, the whole thing shifting with the horizontal reaction of the pistons. And was surprisingly nimble, even in central London traffic, which surprised me.
