2N3055 is a lovely transistor, just that the specmanship in the ratings is really never achievable, it really is a good 2A transistor or a 5A saturated switch, but not good for anything more. there are better devices around, even from the same era, and it really was just that the construction was cheap, as there originally was no heat spreader on the small die, limiting it quite a lot. The original also had a steel plated TO3 plate, which also is not great. You want good in TO3 you want a BUX20, which has a lot better performance, but at a massive price premium for the kovar spreader and the larger die, and the much improved thermal resistances of the thick housing.
Like I said, limited in use, SOA for sure, but for most applications it does the job cheaply, and millions are still in use planet wide, and I have some in power supplies that have been toasting there for over a decade, after I added something the original manufacturer did not include, an actual heatsink instead of the thin steel case alone. this alone kept case temperature below boiling, and was an old PC motherboard heatsink that was close to hand, around the right size to fit the case area and surplus, plus I had a drill to make the single new hole and a bit of white thermal paste spare. 16V in, 13v out and around 2A, and runs at over 100C on die I guess, but still, for a cheap linear supply ( coincidentally also rated at 5A peak, 3A continuous and using 1N5401 diodes in the bridge) that was bought years ago it still works fine.
I designed a few myself, using a 723 and really derating the whole lot, so they are well in the limits, and the TIP3055 transistors run barely warm, though I put current limit at 1A, as it is a battery float charger that I wanted to survive a shorted battery indefinitely. Those 2 have been running for 2 decades plus, I built them in high school. Gone through a lot of batteries in there, they last around 5 years, so I must be doing something right, even with using cells from dead UPS units a few times as replacements.