I grew up in Washington State and remember eating a lot of Gala, Braeburn, and Fuji apples in that time period; I think those are all pretty good apples to eat "out of hand" (compared to what you list for sure; a granny smith is great in a pie though!). Yeah, some of the tasty varieties like Cameo, Honeycrisp, etc, etc, weren't really widely available until quite a bit later, even if they were discovered in the 80s/90s.
You are right: durability and surviving extended stays in "cold storage" was a big factor.
and then issue either a "rollback;" or a "commit;"... I've been happy to have followed this pattern on occasion ;)