People communicated via unencrypted phone calls and SMS and other unencrypted mediums for decades so you might just be massively overstating the importance of E2E message encryption for an average person.

That was the time before we lived our half of our social lives online in group chats and social media.

My calls and texts used to be about me agreeing with my buddies when to hang out. They weren't nearly as private as me keeping in touch with buddies I rarely see IRL, online.

Also, there was a period of transition. Had I known the MSN messenger was completely unencrypted, in that everyone, not just Microsoft, could listen in, I might have felt my privacy violated. I sure as hell feel that in hindsight.

The world has been changing a lot over those decades, and the technological and surveillance capabilities of state actors (and malicious, non-state actors, for that matter) has increased dramatically. Not needing E2EE a few decades ago has nothing to do with whether or not we need it now.

The world was fine without Internet for most of its history. What's your point?