In the days when there was only film then a person might get a roll of color negative processed with small prints. Then, if they were just family or vacation snapshots many may have been edited and only a few placed in a album. With B&W, which I developed myself, only a very small fraction were ever printed, perhaps 1 or 2% and even of those you might select only 1 out of 3 or 4 prints to keep. I agree that digital has made it worse, with the precentige of printed images down to 1 out of 1000 or even less. This ratio might not apply for paid work of course. Even now, still shooting and developing B&W film, my printed rate is still less than 2 or 3%. But then again I shoot small format, 35mm half and full frame, and 16mm subminiature and 9.2mm Minox. I also have, but don't use much 6X6 and even 4X5. On those sizes I take much more care of each exposure and am more likely to make a print.
Definitely time is a factor. Traditional wet darkroom work takes a lot of time. How many of us has spent an entire evening futzing under safelight only to wind up with a pile of wet photo paper in the garbage and one enlargement to show for all those hours. But then I could be just a sloppy darkroom worker to.
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