It's just that feature-wise 3rd Gens were way ahead of their time, in fact only recently are 1911's being touted as "modernized" for having these same features. I post this for those folks who may be reading that are not familiar with the pistols.
Some features:
Serrated front strap, undercut trigger guard, trigger guard checkering, slightly extended slide lock/mag release, ramped barrel, and elongated trigger guard (in fact, I think it is better than my G21 for gloved hands). And a feature that I hear a lot about lately is a short reset trigger. All 3rd Gen features and mine were built around 1990.
I have been extremely lucky with the DA on my 3rd Gens.