The irony here is the Triumph was designed to be a rocket III from the start. The Rune was designed around the Goldwing.
Having said that, neither bike is beautiful IMO (nor my ex-'99 Valkyrie). Both have ugly (one too wide, the other too long and tall) and massive engines, but that's what makes them ATTRACTIVE. Out of the two, I definitely give the nod to the Rune. And I much prefer the F6 than a Rocket's triple, even with its huge power/torque advantages. And considering the 2 'beasts', the Rune is the better looking by far, not to mention better fit and finish, and more reliable. V-Twins are much more pleasing to the eye, but I don't like them. I like different, and that's where the Rune and Rocket fall into place.
My analogy of them is the Rocket is a Corvette convertible. The Rune a Lexus SC430. Former looks and feels cheap in comparison, but it's more powerful, lighter, and cheaper. In real life bought an '03 Vette and traded it for the SC430 6 months later (1K+ miles) at a HUGE loss. Zero regrets. Won't do the same mistake with the bikes (plus I'm keeping the BMW for sport-touring), which means the Rocket III is out of the question for me.
It's definitely nice for the segment (power cruisers?) to have such bike around. Honda could easily extract more performance out of the Rune. Competition is GOOD.
Later.