From what I've read the Baton Rogue incident is often overblown in terms of the damage that the boat actually suffered. She wasn't immediately decommissioned and if any repairs were deferred it was just as likely due to the peace dividend as much as anything else. Two other early 688s were decommed at the same time as Baton Rogue (Omaha and Cinncinati), they hadn't been involved in collisions, its just that they were considered surplus and the Navy had decided not to spend the $$ to refuel them.
From what I recall, the collision between USS ?Grayling or Greenling? and an Echo II was quite a bit worse (the US captain feared that the Soviets sunk) but both boats survived and were put back in service.
For all the flak they get about being second rate, even without taking titanium into account, as far as metallurgy goes the Soviets were ahead pretty much from the time the Foxtrot hit the water, with the Victor class being built out of steel that exceeds HY100 (Seawolf was HY100 by the way, not HY130 which is what the CONFORM design from the 70s was supposed to be made from) and this was in the late 60s! Their double-hull designs were typically stronger, with more reserve buoyancy and greater resistance to damage (most designs could survive the loss of one full compartment and associated ballast tanks) so they did have a lot going for them.
While the argument has been made that the Soviet boats are quieter than given credit for (so maybe they weren't as far behind in this area as often said) I don't think any argument can be made for how much they lagged behind in the electronics department and I do agree with the notion that for probably the entire Cold War the Americans had the upper hand (better electronics / sonar and superior silencing techniques) but the "inferior" Soviet foe was not to be taken lightly.
The other thing that I will say, which is kind of ironic when you compare the backgrounds of the respective countries, looking at what they had to work with, I think the Russians were more creative with their submarine designs, mainly because they had to be. They were aware of their weaknesses / disadvantages and tried to work around them as best they could, coming up with many innovative designs in the process.
__________________
|