alt Hacker NewsNo, I used to play multiplayer games for fun, which was the norm until that option was removed and replaced with derisive "casual" and "competitive" modes.
99% of people who played CS1.x/tf/Q3A/bf1942/cod/etc booted up the game, found a server in the browser with low ping to play on, and if they liked it they favorited it. They came back the next day, and the next, and started to recognized other players. That is the server browser experience.
If you were in the tiny minority of players trying to be "competitive" back then, you're right I don't know what it looked like for you. Sounds like it sucked, honestly, and maybe competitive matchmaking solved some of those problems, but in the bargain we lost a lot of what made those games fun for "casuals" as you smugly call us.
Again, it looks like you forgot all the issues there was, and only remember the good aspect of it. You didnt find the server on the first try.
Your favorite server was not always online
Some people were too good on the server you like and it wasn't fun.
Countless other problems, and you needed to sink in a lot of time to get the few quality time you wrote about.