> when people didn't have always online high speed connectivity
Or any connectivity at all! Back then, it was not unusual for Linux distributions (which came in CDs) to have both one or more "binaries" CDs and one or more "sources" CDs. One distribution which kept that tradition is Debian: you can download at https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/source/iso-dvd/ a complete set of 19 DVDs containing the source code for all packages, and at https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd... metadata to create a complete set of 21 DVDs containing all the binary packages for the x86-64 architecture.
And so, if all you did was put the original tarballs on a CD-ROM or floppies in a simple form, with your patches and build steps on the side, you'd just be a middle man helping some people make their own distro.
Or any connectivity at all! Back then, it was not unusual for Linux distributions (which came in CDs) to have both one or more "binaries" CDs and one or more "sources" CDs. One distribution which kept that tradition is Debian: you can download at https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/source/iso-dvd/ a complete set of 19 DVDs containing the source code for all packages, and at https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd... metadata to create a complete set of 21 DVDs containing all the binary packages for the x86-64 architecture.