I'm not an expert in this area, but from what I understand, I don't think that's actually true. I believe the advantage was that they had very high performance

I'm not an expert in this area, but from what I understand, I don't think that's actually true. I believe the advantage was that they had very high performance at low pressures, which reduced the demands of the mechanical design. This was obviously advantageous when material science, compressors etc. weren't as advanced, but is not as much a deal anymore.