It's true, and a huge point. Until Squeak came along I as a hobbyist -- who was really interested in Smaltalk -- simply couldn't get my hands on a Smalltalk (other than GNU Smalltalk which doesn't count). All through the 80s and early 90s I salivated at screenshots and descriptions of it, but never got to play with it.

That said, When I did finally get Squeak, I found it pretty neat, but it just never blew me away like I thought it would. I just didn't have anything to do with it.