I've got a hypothetical for you.
Suppose a 360 in 1968, with 10 to 1 compression, good 2.02 heads, pretty good camshaft, good exhaust manifolds, 750 or therabouts thermoquad. And then, a few years later, to meet smog regs, they disco"ed the 360, and brought out a brand new 340..... with a nothing cam, a two barrel carb, log manifolds, and 7.5 to one compression.
Think there would be a lot of love for the 340?
(All of the above mods can be done to a 360, to outdo most 340s.)
Most people can't envision past what the factory deemed performance engines anyways, bet if the 318 came built with high CR 340 specs there would be less debates on here. I bet the 340 have less love, but that has little effect on it's capability.