A little history: The 741 has become what it is because of the tight safety requirements for nuclear power plants. At least that's what one of my now retired colleagues has told me; he was involved in the specification personally. Not from the the semiconductor manufacturer side, but from the side of the a big industrial customer who wanted to have a chip certified for applications as mentioned above.
This meant, among other things: strictliy no latch up or phase inversal when used outside of its commeon mode input range. And stable.
