Well, the whole internet started as a cooperative of research institutes. It’s baked into the design, infrastructure, all early protocols are laid out like that. And even well after that, we got lots of independent discussion boards, blogs, different communities here and there. Main point being, people put in a lot of effort to make up their own nice corners.
I think issue isn’t that we weren’t used to it. That was kind of what everything was about starting with the 70s, and central to it for at least the next 30 years. It’s more that we actively forgot! Or better, were made to forget.