But for me i find only those pieces that salutes TRULY the Historical vintage panerais, those up till 1993 are the true ones. These are of course just my very humble opinions. ( I think mon ami Nico is going to get to me about my 349's dial for this, hoho)
But, if you all want to, in my objective analysis i would divide Panerai into the Period from 1935~1993, and 1993~. The PreV mare's would be allocated to the latter group. But as you all know very well by now, Pam made their later pieces "Smaller", because they had to conform to the market situation at that time, where the average of 38mm was considered a giant already, unlike today's 41mm plus. So in a way ( although OP might never admit this) is that they had to "compromise", because if you are so proud of your DNA, why go small? OP did nothing under 47mm up till 1993, when it was for the CIVILIAN market, not the GENUINE market that Panerais were originally even created for, a real TOOL for war.
My humble 2 yens
Stephen