Howdy!
I'm probably not gonna say anything that some 788 lover hasn't said before, but, The 788 had several innovations that made it not only different than, but, better than, the 700.
1. It had multiple lugs, with a total area which(I suspect) exceeded that of the 700.
2. The rear-locking lugs were arranged in an "interrupted thread" configuration, 120 degrees apart, which allowed the bolt to be completely unlocked with only 68 degrees of rotation, and still clear a scope.
3. The rear lugs allowed more reliable feeding, especially with rimmed ammunition, since the cartridges didn't have to cross a lug recess in the reciever.
4. The rear locking generally minimized the length of the bolt stroke, which speeded cycling
5. It had a very quick locktime of 2.36 milliseconds versus 3 milliseconds for a stock model 700.
The main limitation of the 788 was the length of the ammunition box, which didn't allow longer, but very common, cartridges.
The bolt handle was brazed onto the bolt body, but wasn't the only Remington model which had this feature. However, the Remington engineers did not consider the bolt handle to be part of the safety lug system, on the 788, as in some designs.
When it was introduced, it was part of a family of firearms which included .22 caliber models(580s and 590s), which had only six lugs.
The thought process of this design can't be questioned too much, as it did the job it was intended to do, which was to offer upper level performance from an economy level firearm group.
It is an idea that would work again today, and it wouldn't be the first firearm which has been resurrected, more than once, because of good, basic design.
Thanks for your time.