Boeing are very good archivists. Anyone visiting or in the Seattle area should make some time to visit the History of Flight museum at Boeing Field, it's got amazing depth of history in airplane mfg., as well as famous airplanes from the past through today to walk through.
The big advantage of the digital “glass cockpits” was the ability to reduce needed flight crew from 3 to 2. Before the -400, all 747 flights would have a captain, first officer and a flight engineer (sitting behind the two pilots, monitoring engines and other parameters), while modern flights do away with the flight engineer. The glass cockpits aren’t necessarily easier to read or learn, but they do allow a lot more information to be presented in a much more compact space (and only display alerts rather than always having all sensors visible at all times)
As a low-time (just shy of 250 total hours) private pilot, I much prefer all-analog, as I personally find it much easier to take in information in a quick scan. PP and IFR instruction was both done with "glass cockpit" aircraft, and while Garmin's avionics are quite nice -- and were one of the reasons I took instruction where I did, I found that I like the all-analog setups better.
This has a side benefit as well -- the "glass cockpit" planes are much more in demand at the local flying clubs, while I can almost always get an older 172 or 182 with zero advanced notice, and they're cheaper too.
I won't opine about reliability or anything else; I don't have enough experience. I just know which I find easier to process.
A gauge with a needle beats a number on a screen any day because you can just do a quick sweep and see where it is like you said. For critical warnings dedicated lights that are not illuminated any other time are still best. The glass cockpit has an advantage in the latter category since it can draw your attention to any particular numerical value or virtual gauge that is anomalous.
That's a good point about the glass cockpit's ability to emphasize any particular value/reading. I hadn't thought about that one, so thanks for bringing it up.
