I see what your saying, and I definitely agree on Supes 14 and 24, but if Action #36 (robot cover) can get the "classic" designation, I don't see why a few well known war covers can't. I don't think it "denotes a familiarity" as much as some other covers, maybe people just really like robots.
right. Its the robot that earned the classic designation. Robot are a collecting genre of their own, and that Superman cover was a pretty early robot appearance in americana. I think thats why it was earmarked as "special" many years ago.