Yeah, that's why I prefaced my comment with: 'I guess it depends on one's definition of "excellent"'. What others can do is an indication of what is achievable

Yeah, that's why I prefaced my comment with: 'I guess it depends on one's definition of "excellent"'. What others can do is an indication of what is achievable only if what they do is optimal, like let's say for example that a monkey learns 10 words in a planet full of comparable monkeys and things less capable than that, does that environment make the monkey excellent in general as far as learning words goes? I don't think so. I would argue excellence in this sense is to be measured in the scale of what's possible, not as a comparative measure that changes depending on the environment. In this case in particular I wouldn't consider lacking features spec'ed 2 years ago excellence, your mileage may vary.