You could still experience something like this even in late 00s when I travelled to Asia in 2010 on year long trip which end up with me staying there for 5+ years. Heck even on my trip to India in 2007 in many places I had problem to see foreigner, I was surprised by lack of English and I think I've never travelled with another foreigner in my bus when getting around India from South (think Kanyakumari south) all the way cross cross to Delhi.

Heck I remember in 2006 you could found guesthouse meters from Khao San Road in Bangkok for 80THB with nice street meals for 20-25 THB, essentially free water from purifier stations, so you could easily exist in Bangkok as traveller in 2006 on 120-150 THB per day (3-4 USD) with food and accommodation covered and mind we are talking about extremely touristy Bangkok. In Kanchanaburi you could have even nicer accommodation in Jolly Frog for 80 THB with delicious dishes in evening night market next to train station.

That was regarding price level - regarding untouched or hardly touched places with people not speaking English, this covers big parts of Indonesia and I don't much changed in decades since author experiences, Indonesia and China are countries where you will have/had definitely problem to find English speaking person, luckily at least Indonesian language is extremely easy so I could handle at least basic communication in Indonesian after few days forced to learn it to get to places where I wanted and stay on budget, I was eating only in local warungs/street eateriers where no tourists roam hanging with locals greeting me everywhere happy to see foreign face since they rarely see one stepping out of daytrippers going from car outside to take photos and back to car.

Even in Thailand if you stay out of famous islands you could still find undeveloped islands like small Ko Chang, Ko Jum etc., some of them without any cars, without power lines from mainland running on diesel generator only in evening.

Same goes to Philippines, many places in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. Of course don't expect this in tourists hotspots, but if you try to go elsewhere I am sure even in 2022 you have no problem to find places untouched by tourists where they don't see foreigner whole year. And even if they see it's very different approach whether is someone going everywhere by minivan eating in fancy hotel restaurant or you getting around and eating like local (being cheap).

Of course social media, GPS, always connected phones, offline translators changed experience a lot for those who wanna use them, but it doesn't mean it has to be for worse, I'd see translators as improvement, you are able to get much more local now really in places where no foreigner roam. OTOH GPS kinda ruined travelling, since getting lost was part of the experience and was forcing you to interact with locals, now idiots can go all they around staring at their phones without saying a single word to local. ATM is convenient for withdrawing money, but cash is still the king in developing countries.

Btw. it makes also huge difference whether you travel in peak season or off season, it's like two different worlds if you don't mind worse weather, places which are packed with tourists in peak season can be easily completely deserted in off season.