I see your point. I should have been more clear too, I meant more like "failed to achieve the goals stated by its creators." I agree that none of them failed to achieve a significant impact in the lives of the girls, and I think this blind spot of the creators and success outside of it is a significant and interesting part of the story.

But still my overall point remains! If someone is going to make a primer based on the ideas of the diamond age, they should be the ones to start this conversation. They should have a more sophisticated view of this limitation than an internet commenter who last read the book years ago. Not doing that is its own kind of failure.