To be fair, almost all applications in the mid 1980's were real mode, so adding a feature that would allow virtualization of the vast majority of apps makes tot

To be fair, almost all applications in the mid 1980's were real mode, so adding a feature that would allow virtualization of the vast majority of apps makes total sense. Remember, almost no software used the 286's "protected mode" capabilities. Intel wouldn't make the same mistake with the 386.