Such a beautiful plane. While perhaps the structural issues could have been better anticipated and addressed, the fact that the engines were incorporated into the wings would likely have been the next issue for the aircraft, with fires, seized turbofans, and proximity to fuel tanks causing further incidents or accidents at rates exceeding those of planes with their engines mounted on pylons.
There were later versions of the Comet. Version 1 was underpowered, and had too much weight reduction for that reason. By version 4, the design had been debugged. With more powerful engines and structural fixes, the Comet 4 went into service and did OK. 46 Comet 4 aircraft were built. Last flight in 1997.
2011 if you count the Comet-derived Nimrod.
The Sud Aviation Caravelle is a sibling with a different engine configuration.