It’s hard to determine what was aesthetically good from a different time because tastes change.
But there’s nothing wrong with small buttons when your only input tool is a pixel accurate mouse. Arguably what’s worse is too large a button.
But what’s inarguably worse are things like window corners where the click zone extends far beyond the actual window, and parts of the window are not click zones.
It’s hard to determine what was aesthetically good from a different time because tastes change.
But there’s nothing wrong with small buttons when your only input tool is a pixel accurate mouse. Arguably what’s worse is too large a button.
But what’s inarguably worse are things like window corners where the click zone extends far beyond the actual window, and parts of the window are not click zones.