Originally there also wasn't any name-based virtual hosting, especially in SSL/TLS-based services like HTTPS so you needed one IP per name if you wanted to host multiple websites.
And part of the disappearance of www. now is probably that strange decision by Chrome to hide it.
That seems like a feature designed for people who have phone calls so long that their calls get disconnected from reaching some sort of maximum time limit? I don't think that would ever be a problem for me.