I've been watching english subtitled shows for decades. Before high speed internet was affordable, people were sharing fan subbed anime. Dudes at university would show up with their RAIDs with multiple seasons worth of anime. Back then we still measured RAM in megabytes.
Things have only gotten easier to watch.
Then at some point everyone with an IP catalog started launching a streaming service and at the rate it’s going I might re-learn how piracy works because I value my own time enough to be pretty much over trying to figure out if my show du jour is on Disney Plus or Viacom Prime.
I don't want this to be a "kids today don't know how good they have it" post, but that's playing a role. However, that attitude is probably what's going to keep driving things to get even better.
For years before that, people were sharing fansubbed anime on VHS. There were networks of fansubbers and distributors sending tapes through the mail.