Interest rates were actually surprisingly high “back in the day”. The last 10 or so years have been an outlier in how low they are. But buying a house at a much lower real cost, even at a 10% interest rate, would probably be easier back then due to higher relative wages.

Shields didn’t break after a week back then either

In Ocarina of Time you can farm rupees right outside the gate too.

Hell back in my day we straight up set fire to our wooden shields just for fun and an excuse to go ruin a gate guard’s day by smashing all his pots.