For the last 50 years there have been no advances in vertical “technology” — a technology consisting of vertical wire, fed at the base, surrounded by any number of radial wires. To operate multiband, traps had to be placed at appropriate points to shorten the antenna to a 1/4 wave on various. Manufacturers extolled their antennas based on “low loss” trap design, implying their antenna would outperform the others. Yet big signals on the band did not come from these verticals. DX contacts, with the vertical’s well known low angle radiation, did not happen consistently. The vertical became a 2nd class citizen used by those with little space, minimal finances or a need to comply with local restrictions.
If a new amateur asked what antenna to put up, the common response from another ham was, “put up a dipole”. Why? Because a conventional vertical is the most inefficient, noisy antenna available for amateur use and the trap version is even worse.