The 747-8I passenger variant is not selling well. It is going to be a freighter. The A380 is only useful on a few routes / markets. They both blew money big on these flagship aircraft when what sells best are the twinjets 777 and A330.
Boeing could have fixed its narrow body offering (with the demise of the 717, 757) to beat the a320. The 737 is too low for the newer fuel efficient engines - all have larger fan disks, no way around that. They needed to design the next generation single isle replacement. The 737 is an OK plane for the developing world and second tier airlines, but it does not compete with the a320 well when it comes to interior comfort.
I agree that the subsidies carry airbus, but Boeing cant do jack about that.
They had the large plane 777 and 787 right, what they needed was the small plane, not the 747-8. There are plenty of 747-400s lying around for cargo conversion. I think the -8 only carries like 4 extra containers / pallets. They could re-engine the 747 to get the efficiency they hope to gain from the -8, it has plenty of room.
All the other touted benefits: no bleed air, all electrical, composits.... not really money savers for the airlines.
They ignored the wrong market segment. I think it was all ego driven.