We had "coding standards," and if you didn't code it to the right format, you'd get fussed at. I didn't start professionally until the mid 90s, so I'm a little younger than the OP. I've been coding since the mid 80s though as a youngster.

Putting BEGIN..END around a one line block was always a contention since it wasn't required. Less code vs arguably more readable code (Pascal)

  If BLA Then
  Begin
    DO STUFF
  End

vs

  If BLA Then
    DO STUFF

> The code quality is determined by the author, just like today.

This is nonsense. The worst authors can still produce bad code with the best tools and the best authors can still produce good code with the worst tools, but most authors are somewhere in the middle, and tooling makes a huge difference to the average.

I agree with the first sentence, and re: the second, also was using a C linter in 1986.