Given how much of the 1E and 2E period pre-dates the Internet, I doubt there'd be much actual data to base an answer off of.

I played 2E, and personally, I never treated the rules on how many people could fit as implying that it was only specific designated individuals that could enter or exit. The relevant wording describing protective capabilities in 2E was:

When this spell is cast, the wizard creates an unmoving, opaque sphere of force of any desired color around his person. [...] Up to seven other man-sized creatures can fit into the field with its creator, and these can freely pass into and out of the hut without harming it, but if the spellcaster removes himself from it, the spell dissipates.

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The tiny hut also provides protection against the elements, such as rain, dust, sandstorms, and the like. The hut can withstand any wind of less than hurricane force without being harmed, but wind force greater than that destroys it.

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Note that although the force field is opaque from the outside, it is transparent from within. Missiles, weapons, and most spell effects can pass through the hut without affecting it, although the occupants cannot be seen from outside the hut. The hut can be dispelled.

The spell itself is just creating a sphere around the wizard. The spell specifies how many man-sized creatures can fit in it (so there are no arguments about the precise capacity of a 15' diameter sphere, and how the slope of the sphere reduces space and the like), but those creatures are not targets of the spell (only the caster is special), and there is no indication that the ability to move through the sphere is tied to being within it at casting time, being designated by the caster, being friendly to the caster, etc. This is unlike 5E, which explicitly says:

Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast this spell can move through it freely. All other creatures and objects are barred from passing through it.

The 2E sphere is clearly not intended as a strong protection; it's essentially an environmental shield that provides one-way visibility of the surroundings, protecting against nothing but the weather, especially at night, where you could stay warm, without drawing attention with a fire visible (potentially) for a few miles around the camp site, with your guards still able to keep watch without exposing themselves to view. You'd even get some defensive benefit from ranged attacks needing to fire blind (basically all rules for concealment and invisibility and the like describe a -4 to hit modifier for attacking blind, which isn't nothing). In a game with dangerous wilderness and a DM who would inflict more random encounters on a party that doesn't take precautions, or a game using more detailed environmental rules (e.g. like those introduced in 2E's Dark Sun setting, where environmental heat and cold effects were thoroughly quantified, and reducing the heat by 30 degrees could make the difference between life and death) this could be worth it by itself.

For folks from later editions, you might erroneously interpret "sphere of force" as being impassable by default (because "magical force" gets more strict, consistent and reused definitions in later editions), but there was no fixed concept of what constituted "(magical) force" in 2E. Very few spells referred to force at all, and when they did, the parameters for what was blocked by the force were spelled out in exhausting detail (or incorporated by reference to another spell, usually a similar spell of lower level). For example, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere's wording is:

The resilient sphere contains its subject for the spell's duration, and it is not subject to damage of any sort except from a rod of cancellation, a wand of negation, or a disintegrate or dispel magic spell. These cause it to be destroyed without harm to the subject.

Nothing can pass through the sphere, inside or out, though the subject can breathe normally. The subject may struggle, but all that occurs is a movement of the sphere. The globe can be physically moved either by people outside the globe or by the struggles of those within.

While Wall of Force says:

A wall of force spell creates an invisible barrier in the locale desired by the caster, up to the spell's range. The wall of force cannot move and is totally unaffected by most spells, including dispel magic. However, a disintegrate spell will immediately destroy it, as will a rod of cancellation or a sphere of annihilation. Likewise, the wall of force is not affected by blows, missiles, cold, heat, electricity, etc. Spells and breath weapons cannot pass through it in either direction, although dimension door, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier.

Wall of Force actually describes itself primarily as "an invisible barrier", because, without some word that says "This blocks things", things are not blocked merely because the word "force" was used; a "force" can be a tingly static field, a slightly resisting membrane in the air, etc., etc., it's not (in older editions) automatically an indestructible, impermeable barrier. This is how much of older editions worked; there was very little pre-defined terminology that could be used to minimize verbosity by referring to a common, explicitly defined game term. Either the words had a plain English meaning, they got defined in place (and the DM had to adjudicate gaps in the definition), or they referenced a specific other thing for details (e.g. Otiluke's Telekinetic Sphere incorporated the base effects of Otiluke's Resilient Sphere by reference).

Basically, without the existence of 5E's overpowered Tiny Hut, there'd be no reason to suspect the 2E version was intended to restrict the movement of people, when it allows everything else save rain, dust and sand through.