They are deep draft vessels which is fine for the west coast, but those around the Atlantic know how shoaly and shallow many places are. You can have a shoal draft keel, but then with a high aspect rig and a low aspect keel the boat is no longer balanced and the performance again suffers. It can be argued that even an overloaded modern boat with a shoal draft compromise is a faster sailer than an old gaffer. This is probably true if upwind, light air performance is considered, but fall off the wind a little and let the wind come up and the modern boat is reefing and heeling and spraying. But I also will not ignore a millennium of sailing s evolution because a few boats that I would never take offshore can point 15 degrees higher than I do.
Traditional craft are still around because they work, and they work well.
I can t think of another boat I would want to go through hell and high-water on than a well built traditional gaffer.