Yes, a very odd take. I had watches ever since I was a child, and changing the watch band was a regular occurrence. Mostly because I would wear through them.
In more recent times, the Timex Weekender had a very large ecosystem of swappable bands. But it was designed such that you needed no tools and just slid the bands in and out.
The Apple system is really nice, in that you can quickly and easily change attached bands without tools.
Oh the Apple watch system is definitely nice! And I prefer it to having to fiddle around with small pins to shim my watch band off. But that's not so much the issue, the rather odd idea of "hardly anyone changing watch bands before Apple" is.
What probably is true is that pre-Swatch (and maybe some other brands/lines), people certainly replaced watch bands. But it was more because the band was worn out as opposed to casually swapping them for fashion reasons.
