Honeycrisp is recent- 1991. Red Delicious was a great stride forward at that time. Before that the best apple was the Granny Smith, and other like Fameuse (Snow Apple), Golden Russet , etc. The beauty of the Red Delicious was that it tasted better than many varieties- most were used for cooking and cider only, not eating- and the fact it was good for long storage, thus people outside Washington, etc could find decent apples all year 'round.
Mind you I agree, Honeycrisp is great!