I think this really started becoming a thing on 360, and then exploded on i/e.
There were "line runners" and there certainly were some shenanigans involving people trying to cut the line before then, but I feel that on Elevation and Vertigo people for the most part got to the venue and camped out... which I am totally fine with and try not to judge those who do it often.
Somewhere on 360 is when we started getting these multi-day secret lists starting in random parking garages and In And Out Burgers.
I wasn’t really in the touring aspect of things during the Elevation and Vertigo eras, so I can’t speak to that. But in my experience on the I&E and 360 tours, I always got the impression that it was a bit more lax than it was before that? At least in terms of people being conniving or trying to keep things a secret anyway. One would imagine that kind of thing would have been a bit easier in 2001 or so as well.
Heck, I don't even tend to notice any "superfans" at shows nowadays either, or at least ones who literally do go from show to show, or demand the best spots every time, or get snippy with people when they think they're interfering with that somehow. I see lots of familiar faces and people who do want to grab Bono's attention or whatever. But they're usually spread out amongst everyone towards the front of the line, from what I gather. I'm sure a few people like that are still out there, but I haven't really noticed anything like that at the shows I've attended since 2015.
What I tend to find is that a lot of these lists are now “started” by people who live in the area, since they know about the system fans have used before. And yeah, while the parking lot and coffee place situations are just plain weird, I don’t get a vibe that people are trying to keep it a secret as much as fans might have done back in the day. Heck, when I did the whole “list” thing for one show last summer, the people running it allowed me to take a picture of the “list” and contact info, and even asked me to tell others or post online where they were or where they planned to be if venue security told them to leave. They weren’t exactly saying “Shhhhh!” or telling me I wasn’t a superfan and couldn’t be on it, lol.
I think the most drama I ever saw for a list was after one of the Chicago shows in 2015. Someone who didn’t attend that night’s show came by and started the next night’s list as the show was still going on. Then when a few of the GA people got out of the current show and found out about it, they started a whole other list and one of them went to security to make sure theirs would be the “actual” one used. When security said they wouldn’t obey any list then, people started arguing and I even saw a grown 40-something man scream “I just wanted it to be fair!!!” This tragic “crisis" was averted, thankfully, when everyone finally agreed to go by the original guy’s list with a few adjustments... and I’m sure people were probably a whole two feet closer or further away from where they would have been anyway.