You are correct. Chooser was originally called "Choose Printer" and was added when the LaserWriter came out. Prior to that time, the only printer driver Apple supplied was for the Imagewriter, the de facto Mac printer.
I think they stuck it there because network printers were already chosen through the Chooser, so it just made sense to put all of the shared devices together. It also made for a convenient place to put the radio buttons to turn AppleTalk on and off.
The Chooser never really got updated much, which was one of its problems (and also a more global problem of some elements of the classic OS). The Chooser in OS 9.2.2 isn't much different than the one from 6.0.x and does the same basic thing. It's simple and elegant, but could have done more.
(You could say the same about almost all of the DAs needing updates. Key Caps could have included a full character map option, the Scrapbook could have worked more like MultiClip, the Note Pad could have added support for files, the Calculator could have gained scientific functions, the Alarm Clock could have supported multiple alarms--oh yeah, and Microsoft solved all of those problems except Scrapbook and Alarm Clock with Windows).
I think they stuck it there because network printers were already chosen through the Chooser, so it just made sense to put all of the shared devices together. It also made for a convenient place to put the radio buttons to turn AppleTalk on and off.
The Chooser never really got updated much, which was one of its problems (and also a more global problem of some elements of the classic OS). The Chooser in OS 9.2.2 isn't much different than the one from 6.0.x and does the same basic thing. It's simple and elegant, but could have done more.
(You could say the same about almost all of the DAs needing updates. Key Caps could have included a full character map option, the Scrapbook could have worked more like MultiClip, the Note Pad could have added support for files, the Calculator could have gained scientific functions, the Alarm Clock could have supported multiple alarms--oh yeah, and Microsoft solved all of those problems except Scrapbook and Alarm Clock with Windows).