This is such a red herring. Of course there were, because the addons did not exist (yet), or were subpar. Present a 2009 gladiator to a 2025 rival with addons and the rival will ravage their ahh so hard it would end up on liveleaks. The game proficiency has accelerated tenfold. People have close to 2 decades of experience with the game at this point, in some cases. Addons are imperative to close the gap even remotely by teaching you the game, since the game itself does not.
The biggest issue is that while in pve this is not that big a deal, in pvp it’s a catastrophe, but I’ve been calling for pvp hud revamp for years, to no avail.
Blizzard does not care about pvp, and the existence of addons partially disguised this fact. Once we don’t have them, the forums will be flooded with calls for pvp ui pruning, and they will do nothing.