Lots of things were done to minima that, these days, would make one shudder. Bear in mind that the associated loss rate was high, too.
A couple of military instances: my first instructor had flown Air Defence Hunters in Germany in the mid-50s. Before the days of the Hunter T7, each Sqn kept a Vampire T11 which was used, among other things, as a weekend taxi. No such thing as minima - they would take a GCA which ended with "touchdown point now", at which stage power went to idle and they would hope to be on the hard bit.
Second, a former colleague who flew the CF-100 with the RCAF. They routinely flew with minima of "hundred and a quarter" - i.e. decision height of 100 ft and vis of 440 yds; I think this was also with GCA.
And remember what the Aeropostale did with the DC-3 and the like: using non-precision aids into grass fields and landing in fog. Minima? Not sure they had any.
It goes to show that you can get away with a lot - some of the time,