They were. I still have one that I bought when they were released. Well, just a bit after they were released. At WWDC that year, the SF Apple Store sold out of them before I could get there after the announcement.
Mine is still cranking, though it's recently relegated to couch duty as I use the 2019 iMac for WFH heavy lifting these days. I put a $29 upgraded WiFi module in it so that my watch will unlock it (and enables a bunch of other Bonjour functionality), but it otherwise just keeps humming along. I'm wondering if it isn't the computer I've kept and regularly used more than any other in the forty years since my first one.