Phosphor [&]

Facebook started as a website meant for you to be able to hook up with people you met at college, basically. Like, I can remember when it was escaping containment but hadn't yet become FACEBOOK, college age friends were signing up for it specifically for the purpose of tracking new college friends, but not for anything more! So the real name thing makes some sense in that context. Once it had escaped containment, it really seemed to pick up steam as a social network for Everyone and it was lax about the real name thing for a little bit. We were baffled at the time too when it insisted on Real Names Only for alllll the logical and sensible reasons you can imagine. People objected that it would make stalking easier, for example. But Facebook was just being pushed really hard as the thing you had to have in order to stay connected to everyone from family to your roommate's cousin's dog groomer. It was marketed really well and soon became so crucial to how some people navigated the internet that is WAS the internet for a lot of people (and still is) and, like, sure the more tech and socially savvy people protested it, but if this is the only way your family or friends communicate anything anymore you might keep letting shit slide. Or just lose out on a lot of connections. (College sucked in Peak Facebook time if you refused to have a Facebook and everyone you knew only connected on Facebook. sob) Facebook also really really pushed an idea of "well if you don't have anything to hide, then your real name should be fine" which was just bullshit marketing talk for folks who had proto-purity culture brain rot. Plus, they said, your page didn't have to be public. (Never mind how easy it can be to triangulate and just find info about you by going through the public facebooks of people you know.)
Anyway! TL;DR: We knew back then. We objected. Marketing of this shiny new toy and social pressure from friends and family helped normalize a social media culture designed to squeeze people for advertising profit.