I had a decent midi collection well before MP3s were around (or even took off). MIDI was much more forgiving to download via a 14.4k modem.

Even when they did, I remember how revolutionary Creative Labs appeared (to me) with sound fonts on my Live! card. Or when the PC version of FF7 came with a software synth.

I occasionally run across songs on streaming services claiming to be 'orchestrated' versions of this or that, only to highly suspect the 'author' just grabbed a MIDI and threw it into a modern music writing studio package (perhaps replacing a few instruments here and there).