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Surprisingly, a lot of that improvement comes from miniaturization and from better capacitors. The tubes themselves weren't really bad but they were power hungry and physically large. The capacitors, however, in the 1960s were terrible.

Doesn't a more sensitive receiver make the harmonic issue worse? In one case it fades out into background in the other you precisely measure it!

It's not that modern receivers are more sensitive, but that they are more selective. Harmonic or "image" rejection can achieve 20 to 60 dB in commercial applications today. The first and last sections of this paper may help explain: http://www.plextekrfi.com/images/pdfs/RF_mixer_design.pdf

> Receivers are far, far better than they were in the tube era.

Only two "far"s? That's a significant understatement :P

For something like this, I think SI prefixes would be useful. "Kilofar" or "megafar" might be appropriate here.