I'm curious as to what the OP thinks. CrabCake, do you care to enlighten us?
I started this thread because because i didn't know enough about the rise of the Habsburgs to really judge them - I'm mainly familiar with them through the neverending supply of failure they contributed from the 18th century onwards.
I will say that there are certain Habsburgs i don't think were absolutely awful (mainly Maria Theresa) whereas the corresponding "best" bourbons like the Sun King tend to piss me off. Maybe there is something to be said that the Habsburg domains, for all their suckitude, never adopted in full some of the more demented attributes that came from from modern states. Like, say what you want about an ultra conservative fossil like Metternich, if you judge success as avoiding nightmarish great power wars, his stewardship of European politics was a victory of sorts.