It would have, because I don't know how it is done nowadays, but back then, each package repository maintainers were watching closely the source they were relea

It would have, because I don't know how it is done nowadays, but back then, each package repository maintainers were watching closely the source they were releasing. As signing with their own keys. They would only build from source for example, and rebuilt by the distribution infrastructure. And in addition, the slow pace of having things like stable, testing, unstable was to give the opportunity to serious users to ensure to used package that were stable, safe and battle tested.