In much the same way that the SE is at a pinnacle of 68000 development, although some might put the Classic there. Personally, I think the Classic is on the downward side of that mountain. They reached the top, then looked around for ways to economize and headed back down the hill at that point.

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Actually now that I am exploring the Portable, I think the backlit Portable represents the top of the mountain. It is the same specs as the SE FDHD but with a 16MHz data bus and 8MB RAM, or 4MB with similar PDS expansion options (not to mention dedicated video out for using a larger monitor and internal modem). As many have said, the Classic at a minimum should have been the Portable in a compact case, in which instance it would have been the crowing achievement of the 68000 line. But instead the Classic was Apple's last effort to squeeze the last profit out of the original 128K tools while not competing with more profitable models which needed to be recouped (along with the Classic II which was no replacement for the SE/30 either). Had Apple kept the Portable in production, but positioned it as a desktop model now that the price was dropping, they would have essentially had the first iMac. A relatively powerful consumer desktop with a great looking LCD. Truly they were 15 years ahead of their time with that one. Instead they did the same thing and started back down the hill with the PowerBook 100.