At least those were on technical merits. However imaginary or arbitrary those merits were... Which I think was more healthy place.
'Were'? There are still people claiming that fronted isn't real coding. It is deeply embedded in human nature to define an us v them, and if skin colour is off the table substitutes must be found.
I think you're seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses. In some FLOSS circles the discussions were dominated by ideologues, to the point some discussions seemed like Monty Python skits. I mean, your choice of window manager, let alone Linux distro, was something you'd be judged by.