There was a period between 1996-2000 where we had broadband and the old web and it was faster than today. But I remember an article in Wired around 2000 about two guys that owned a diamond business in Canada who moved to L.A. to start a dotcom for their business. They moved back to Canada after a year and their assessment was the web was nothing more than a massive direct marketing platform. I wish I can find that article because it was quite prophetic.
Images took ages to download on 56k. Performance today is vastly better.
There are cases where progress has moved backwards eg. new buggy JS Reddit, but I by no means have rose tinted spectacles for the past.