You are right that some cold-pressed seed oils have been used since antiquity, e.g. sesame oil.
Nevertheless, until modern extraction methods based on the use of high temperature and organic solvents have been introduced during the last two centuries such oils had remained expensive, so they were only a minor part of the food, unlike today, when if you look at the label of any kind of industrially-made food you will invariably see that some cheap oil has been added to it, e.g. soybean oil, canola oil or palm oil.
Even today, if you choose vegetable oils extracted by good methods, i.e. by cold pressing or with supercritical carbon dioxide, they are much more expensive than standard oils. For instance, the price range for cold-pressed sunflower oil overlaps with that of the cheaper kinds of extra-virgin olive oil and the prices are several times higher than for standard sunflower oil.
I have read all the 4 parts of this "Death by Vegetable Oil" series of posts.
Some of its conclusions are likely to be true, but the title is extremely misleading. A much more appropriate title would be "Death by the Cheaper Vegetable Oils".
All the data presented in these posts about the harmful effects of some vegetable oils are not applicable to vegetable oils in general, but only to those vegetable oils that have one or more of the following characteristics:
1. A high content of linoleic acid and also a too high daily intake. The optimum daily intake of linoleic acid is unknown, but it is believed to be around 10 g/day and not much over 20 g/day. In my opinion, based on the current data, an example of a daily fat intake optimized for the fatty acid profile and vitamin E content, for a sedentary human, would be 55 mL of extra-virgin olive oil + 15 mL of cold-pressed sunflower oil + a DHA+EPA omega-3 supplement. The rest of the food should have low fat content, like in grains, vegetables, fruits or lean meat. For a higher calorie intake, only the amount of extra-virgin olive oil should be increased.
2. Extraction with high temperature and/or organic solvents. One should always prefer extra-virgin oils, cold-pressed oils or oils extracted with supercritical carbon dioxide. All such oils are very sensitive to light, so they must be stored in darkness, preferably in dark glass bottles. Avoid those sold in clear plastic bottles.
3. Vegetable oils that have been heated during cooking. All vegetable oils should be mixed with the food only after cooking it and cooling it. They should not be used for frying.
4. Vegetable oils with artificial additives, e.g. with TBHQ. Avoid these.