The original IBM PC's detestable "CGA" graphic standard beat out the advanced mix of mapped and raster color graphics that the DEC Rainbow PC demonstrated commercially. Took ten years to come back to where things could have been from the start.
Fortran 77 beat APL.
Piston gasoline engines beat out Steamers.
In what way is the piston engine inferior to a steamer? While continuous combustion has definite advantages over pulsed combustion, a steam engine is limited by the ability to transfer heat into the steam.
An approach I'd like to see used would be to combine the concepts of internal- and external-combustion engines by having an engine where fuel and air are pumped into a combustion chamber and the combustion products power a piston engine (which in turn powers the pumps). I would think that there would be a potential for quite reasonable efficiency in such a system (this principle, btw, is how turbine jet engines work).