Most of the people reading this are driving 70's soft suspension, wormgear steering diesel MB. Sometimes early 80's soft suspension wormgear steering diesel MB :D
Even more marginal, the guy hammering the weight that is X onto the wheel...

Unfortunately not.

Most are from the '80s and the suspension is anything but soft. A casual ride in one of them would clue you into that tidbit. They are definitely sensitive to couple unbalance and the only way a bubble balancer works if if you're very lucky and both the wheel and the tire are very accurately manufactured.

One additional possibility for the use of a bubble balancer is presented if the driver is insensitive. There are plenty of members on here who would tolerate a 1/2" shake in the wheel and not even comment on it. Bubble machines are fine for them. If the vehicle moves under it's own power from point A to point B, they're good. They only come here when it won't move at all.

Anyone taking odds as to when the drunken Mel Gibson tirates will start?

When I was a Kid back in the lat 1950s Bubble Balancers were used at Gas/Service Stations, likely better made than Harbor Freight ones.

Cars drove at about the same speeds as they do now and were not impeded by as many Traffic Signals either.

I have been using a Manual Tire Changer (Harbor Freignt Again) since the early 1990s and I don't have My Tires Balanced at all unless I have an issue with them.