> While the 680x0 might have been nicer to program, because of its very CISCy semantics

It indeed was. I don't understand why Intel at least didn't try to be inspired by the good bits here.

> turns out that making a performing OoO implementation was impossible with the transistor budget of the 90s. Not so much with the much uglier but simpler x86.

Yup. This killed the Amiga, and this was what forced Apple to move to PowerPC. Motorola just couldn't deliver fast enough chips at a reasonable cost.

No reason not to praise them for what they did do right though.