Fun but not really, open (iirc it was called extended or something like that) format always existed and everyone could play it, but at the same time nobody should because decks were wild even 20 years ago, i actually quit after witnessing open format tournament with two guys with 1st turn win decks (otherwise entirely obsolete) which both predictably met in finale, ruining quite some fun in the progress, and basically entire match was decided who won the coin toss to start first.

This above formatbloat is effect of opposite direction, to facilitate most possible players who were utterly lost between cutting edge but ultra whale standard and monstrous extended. After all the pillar of MtG success was that they managed to sell that to the wide audience and under that success there are hundreds of already forgotten card games.