Most (80%ish) Anglophones of centuries past were illiterate until the mid-19th century, so it's hard to gauge if they knew the difference, and it's hard to give all of them credit for their use of the language based on such a few who were writing for posterity to read.
Maybe the elites, who learned to read and had books, did, but the general public still had town criers and oral traditions. The internet is like everyone's become a town crier and an oral tradition. Don't judge the few and extrapolate it to the entirety.
