A 60MB download would have been fine.
Indeed, with the annoying habit of proprietary software to install "Download managers" that download the actual software, I would be happy for just a 60MB runtime for the actual program itself.
60MB, even today, is really big when you have to download it while boarding a train or with poor connectivity (even in rich countries, just being in a metallic building is enough for 60MB to be painful to download.
And 60MB would have been a couple of hours, not bad to wait for some software.
It wasn't prohibitive to do this.
Indeed, I seem to be back at square one, as downloading a AAA game for me once again takes about a day.
It was absolutely prohibitive for the average person with a shared line, and the direct comparison to shared line today is a metered connection. Even in the US it can be as much as $30 per gigabyte which would make that 60MB download cost $1.80.