Was paypal a good or terrible option to buy bitcoin in the early days of exchanges?
bad
users would buy bitcoin using paypal and then contact paypal to say they were hacked to get a refund. thus free bitcoin
now please try to use your current topics to ask the same questions about the same era of bitcoin you keep asking about
During those days of using Paypal to process Bitcoin purchases had been so ugly moments for sellers since there was no escrows to validate transactions.
It was like an easygoing for scammers who stands as buyers as they would receive their Bitcoins sent by sellers but will file a case against the seller as there is no mining in the PayPal network to confirm transaction propagation with a proof-of -work in the Bitcoin Blockchain like it is in the exchanges.
Infact, it was generally irritating for the buyer and the seller of Bitcoin to honestly run trustable transaction because as peer-to-peer considering both dealers understanding, one to receive could file a disputable case with claims which could result to bounce back(reversal) of the transaction as charge-back which could lead to lost of one party.
It really serves a deep breath having exchanges and the Blockchains today where transactions can be made reliably.