No because it was first come first served in addition to having sprouted from a government program.
Universities who got on the bandwagon first also tended to have multiple class B addresses.
I know several individuals who have /24's ("class C") blocks, including myself. I always regret not going for the class B. It would've just taken a couple of emails back in 1993.
The first place I was a network admin at they had a /16. I didn't deal with private IPs until I left that company in 2015. Even the printers were on a public IP.
A great answer in the late 70s, what's the reason for holding on to them today?
Possession is 9/10th of the law? They already have them, making it easy for them to keep them.