There was gamma correction and other perceptually uniform-ish color spaces before 1996 and before sRGB. I was taught about the CIE set of color spaces xyY/XYZ/L

There was gamma correction and other perceptually uniform-ish color spaces before 1996 and before sRGB. I was taught about the CIE set of color spaces xyY/XYZ/LAB/LUV in school and used them to write renderers before I’d ever heard of sRGB. And yes exactly right, before they know better, a lot of people will grab something non-linear and starting doing linear math on it accidentally. It’s still one of the most common color mistakes to this day, I think, but it was definitely more common before sRGB. People sometimes forget basic alpha-blend compositing needs linearized colors, so it’s a common cause of fringe artifacts. Things have gotten much better though, and quickly. A lot of game studios 20 years ago didn’t have much in the way of color management, and it’s ubiquitous now.