In ancient times, the internet was small and simple...

That... that is never how that worked...

258 was the best part. :)

There are far less than 255 countries in the world, and most countries do not have 255 regions.

On the other hand, most regions have more than 255 subnets, and with NAT these days, most subnets have faaaaar more than 255 devices

Seeing 258 in an IP Address made me cry 😂