Funnily enough, I remember reading Birthright reviews back when it first came out (20 years ago now!) where it was described as being heavily inspired by the Donner movie.
But yeah, its a shame that it only got to be the official origin for like a year or two. I suppose its lasting legacy is that it got the ball rolling on restoring certain Pre-Crisis elements to the Superman franchise - most notably the return/reboot of Kara Zor-El.