A couple could have benefitted from it. A couple would have still had to be done the way they were. A computer is an option, like a typewriter, hand lettering, or any other means of putting word on paper - the computer shouldn't dictate the design of a project. The best things about chapbooks after all are they're fun, inexpensive, and can be art in themselves. Chapbooks Considered Book design requires planning.
Desktop publishing offers hundreds of choices of type - most of which are unreadable.
If you have nothing but a typewriter, a photocopier that can reduce and enlarge can offer at least as much size variety as desktop, if not the typeface variety. Colored paper can highlight a collection of poems. Colored papers also bleed through less then white bond or lightweight papers. I had a lot of clue covers, white covers, and blue and white covers. When laid out on a table they all started looking alike.