I think most of what you're referring to was Control Panel.
Control Panel was unique in settings applying immediately. Pretty much every app's preferences (or other settings) were a modal dialog with OK/Cancel, however.
So it was a step forwards when iOS's Settings app changed from checkboxes to toggles, because this reflected the immediate change. And now with Ventura, macOS has finally caught up as well.
you may not like it but this is what peak UX looks like
https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/macos80