There were online updates during the PPC to Intel era, even later versions of classic Mac OS (circa Mac OS 9) had some online update capabilities.
Yes, the unwashed masses were just getting past the nerd factor of the Internet, but it wasn’t that bad for software distribution.
The experience of using a mobile phone, on the other hand, was brutal. If you wanted to get a new feature enabled on your device, you’d only be able to take it to a retail outlet of your phone provider.
My specific examples were (1) getting a firmware update on a Nokia 6188 to enable access to the 800 MHz band of the provider’s then-restructured CDMA network; and (2) same for a CDMA Blackberry to enable EVDO data.