It was a strong habit of very very few people. There were not many people with computers; only a small fraction of those users were online; and only a fraction of that fraction were using .zip.
Basically, it was a feature of a subculture that was swept away by the hordes of computer users the pc revolution unleashed.
And it is worth considering that .zip is a bit niche technology among all the people online today…even if everybody we know knows about it, that’s because they are like us…by which I mean semi-competent at googling. Good luck.