Not that it matters much but old bikes were usually "dry weight" while modern bikes are "wet weight". The difference in weight between old and new is usually not as much as official numbers might indicate.

Horses for courses.
If I were going on a round the world trip, and planned on keeping on asphalt all the way, and had lots of luggage, and could afford it, I'd take top of line BMW/KTM/Suzuki/Honda/Kawasaki/etc at any time.
If planning for few unpaved roads, with less luggage, and on a lower budget, a midsize would be my choice.
If planning for dirtroads, with small luggage, and on a shoestring budget, a CRF300Rally/etc would be my choice.
If planning to try every small path that looks nice SuperCub/etc would be my choice.

The actual bike chosen would depend on availability.

I for one have steered away from Gs's in earnest. I saw a RTW ride report of a young German plumber who did that and had a bad accident in Delhi, the resultant cost had him actually had him ordering parts from Germany cos they were cheaper than in India as they're classed as some sort of "super luxury" item.
Not only that it could only be repaired in a BMW franchise which was nowhere near where the accident took place. No thanks.

The super tenere is a bullet proof engined-long in the tooth design that would be far easier to repair, and I'm guessing cheaper too.
Why a 1200cc behemoth? Well it's about weight anf space capacity and the ability of the bike to carry it all.

Just over a year ago I did a trip across France, around the perimeter of Spain and back again, 4200 miles in 3 1/2 weeks, two up with full camping gear on a Harley Sportster with my adult son pillion.
You couldn't have got a fag paper anywhere in the luggage and we even had to eschew biking boots for Berghaus climbing boots as we didn't have space, something I was nervous about the whole trip.
Making me more nervous was the knowledge that I was over the GVW by a long chalk, not so much the handling as the bike I thought could take it but if an accident happened and they figured out that I was at fault for overloading...

I'd reccied that route the year before on my Super Tenere with a GS'er from a forum and over the trip all he could do is stop at every available site there was another GS'er to compare notes so I can understand why there is a dislike of them, however I got to say he was a better motorcyclist than me and I am probably biased, but given how many GS's there are in Europe it appears to be like a select club that I for one am glad to not be a member of, never have run with the crowd.

Regarding smaller bikes, I had a Honda 90 (pre-Cub days) in the 80's and used to hundreds of miles trips on it and had a blast.
In fact there is a young lady on YT not only doing a RTW on a cub but doing as much of it TET as she can, so no solid argument one way or the other.

For me it was simple: Can it carry a lot of weight, is the engine reliable, is there no chain to lubricate/replace, is it NOT a GS?
A Super Tenere was the only choice that was affordable IMO.

Yeah. You wouldn’t want to ride one of those unreliable GS’s…..

btw - the ‘luxury’ tax is based on price.

A GS and a Tenere 1200 are within a couple thousand dollars, so the rider in India would have been screwed on either.

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