They work well in a low local noise location.

As will nearly anything.

A random or long wire could be a good reference antenna against a new
design.

To me, a random wire would be a poor reference antenna. To me, there
are basically two reference antennas. The horizontal dipole, which
would
be the reference for horizontal antennas, and the 1/4 monopole, which
would be a reference to compare against vertical antennas.
For elevated verticals, I use the 1/4 wave ground plane as the
reference
antenna.
A random wire is much too random. The antennas I use as benchmarks
all have well known and repeatable performance. All my horizontal wire
antennas are compared to the 1/2 wave dipole. BTW, not many win either,
unless they are gain antennas. As far as efficiency on a certain band,
it's
hard to beat a coax fed dipole. And thusly, it's my usual "benchmark"
antenna.
MK