I believe the 2A3 has long suffered from looking bad on paper.
The 300B that audiophiles hold in such high esteem gets most of the attention, and making twice as much power likely explains a lot of that. Give the tube a chance, and it would likely win over many a tube lover. It often subjectively feels more powerful than the 300B, has a distinctly more emphatic bottom end, and can even beat the 300B in the midrange. In my experience, the 2A3 does not make a good candidate for SET use. In a parallel single-ended or push-pull topology, it can drive most reasonably efficient loudspeakers to sound pressure levels most any audiophile demands.