Yes, companies were lazy and greedy even way back when. But there are a number of facts that come into play when it comes to UI being much shittier today:

1. Personal computers before the 21st century were really kind of shit. Let alone mobile devices.

2. Software was largely a product that people paid for. It even came in boxes.

3. Software vendors were usually in a highly competitive environment. They had to deliver value for money if they didn't want to get eaten alive.

This meant that the software had to both work on the limited resources of 1990s shitty computers—limited storage, limited speed, limited display colors and resolution, etc.—and be useful to the end user. So companies were kept a lot more honest in terms of UI design. Circumstances forced them to deliver functional, efficient UIs. These days, our computers are fairly powerful and companies are in the business of selling services (or eyeballs to advertisers) rather than software. The user-facing software itself is a loss leader, and if making it a shitty Electron app, or desktop-mobile "convergence", helps save development costs, companies will do it.