NetworkManager was literally just a GUI initially, wasn't it? IIRC in 2006, connecting to wifi from the CLI on a system with NetworkManager involved running the wpa_supplicant commands that NetworkManager wrapped.
It already had beginnings of current architecture, but at the time it only wrapped iwconfig and wpa_supplicant, yes.
But the decision to leave people who asked for ad-hoc support (especially when, outside of USA and possibly few other countries, access points were still not as common equipment) was done by design, not because it would require any significant increase in code (IMO).
But the decision to leave people who asked for ad-hoc support (especially when, outside of USA and possibly few other countries, access points were still not as common equipment) was done by design, not because it would require any significant increase in code (IMO).