Exactly, they could pretty much dump figures out there. There wasn't as much of a need for quality control since they were producing massive batches of smaller sets.
Also,while much of what has been presented here is very cool, even within the models Chumley is painting there are total garbage sculpts that a great paint job doesn't really help with. Those lords of battle, most of the chaos lines, old elf models, most orcs, all of those lines were utter garbage. The old models had character in places, but the quality was inconsistant. Just as new doesn't mean best, old doesn't automatically make a model characterful.