I’m not sure this was the reasoning. None of the languages in the direct Algol heritage have any sort of parametric polymorphism, including for range bounds, so working with arrays (which were, at least in Pascal, the primary application of range types) was either constant and repetitive fighting with the compiler or unsafe escape hatches all the way. (Usually both.) I believed this was the primary motivation for the removal of ranges.
(Of course, it’s literally impossible to make polymorphic range bounds work completely, due to the undecidability of Peano arithmetic. The most convincing attempt I’ve seen that doesn’t just go full dependent types on you is ATS, and even that is not exactly the friendliest of environments.)
Another system whose evolution was explicitly guided by self-compilation speed is Chez Scheme, and it’s a fine one. Generally it seems to me that it’s a valid optimization principle, but not a global one: you can fall into an unfortunate local minimum if you start in the wrong place. ... Well, so what, it’s not like there are any infallible design principles in programming.