(Hmmm, do you suppose those government techies drift thru ballistics tables and notice that a long, long time ago....)

I don't think this one is so much on the techies. From what I understand this was brought about by a few special forces guys who got tired of carrying gopher ammo into battle but needed a cartridge that worked in the AR-15 action. So they came up with a castrated 270 basically. It isn't intended to replace the 5.56mm (223), but rather serve as a special purpose cartridge for the special forces. I still see nothing wrong with the 308 Win.