Guess why it was asymmetrical in the first place ... Telcos wanted to sell the upload bandwidth to streaming companies. Another double dipping Telco monopoly squeeze and customer boxing / enshitification from very early on.

I thought it was just trading more download for less upload when last mile bandwidth was limited by re-using old POTS copper.

Wasn't dialup largely asymmetric too? I don't think p2p streaming was even on the radar back then.