This is a common trend I have seen with hifi: everything is better or worse depending on your religion, there seems to be no room for "that'll do" in our discourse...
I'm not so sure. There is plenty of interest in older gear, and quite often it is accepted that there are better things available. The key though is that there is something special about the distortions, or the look, or it appeals to the collecting instinct that means someone wants, say, an old pair of leak amps, or an SME 3009.
Every bit of gear in my hifi has a more modern 'better' equivalent, and yet I feel no desire to change to these - i'm more likely to take a big sideways step into the unknown for fun, rather than the pursuit of perfection, whatever that is ;-)
My decision to go nc400 rather than a UcD was concern that if I didn't like the amp I was building, there was a chance i'd rule out class D as a viable technology as it was my first try with it. If I found it lacking, was it the technology, or the implementation? For a few quid extra I could have a state of the art class D implementation.
BTW, about wireless transmission stuff, the new chromecast audio dongle thing could be what you want. I've got one on order and it may be quite a fun device. Along with the cheap £50 amazon fire tablet, i'm planning on building a really cheap wireless source for radio play, and a bit of spotify. The tablet is with me, just the dongle to turn up.