Indeed, "outside of this group’s realm", and I mostly agree with you about Palomar. However, don’t sell it short … it was a fair site when first built … not at all currently. Still, for MANY years it was the world’s premier telescope, and contributed greatly to our understanding of the universe. Also, as I understand it, the Russian 236” telescope was troubled mostly by its alt-azimuth mount. The technology of the time was not up to that task. Nowadays most all big telescopes use such a mount, so the Russian giant was too far ahead of its time. And yes, it did have optical problems  from its huge one-piece mirror.