Having lived in that era: no one "complained endlessly", or even at all, about the internet. It was seen as magical. When compared to not existing at all, being slow wasn't all that awful.

I remember using the internet around 2005 and you could hold a conversation while waiting for the page to load. No one complains, because you have a wealth of information at your fingertips. It was actually amazing to chat with someone anywhere in the world or to be able to browse some forums.

>When compared to not existing at all, being slow wasn't all that awful.

slow is relative to the use, anyway

I remember the first time I saw the real time chat function of ICQ, where people could see you typing with not that much delay, I was utterly fascinated that such a thing was even happening

normal web pages not filled with animated gifs were not unbearably slow either

"slow" is what happened if you tried to use Real Player and saw that dreaded "buffering" every 5 seconds of video