I think they still make totally excellent tires.
Not a simple thing to do.
Michelin put out a travel guide to promote their tires when
ordinary folks started buying cars in the 20’s and 30’s. It was a promotion that gave a reason to travel by car, when that was new and no-one really had done it before. “Go to such and such town, try out so and so’s roast beef.” It started the “road trip” phenom and evolved from there to what we see today.
It's kinda funny how so many people don't realize Michelin-starred restaurants comes from Michelin tires.
Michelin wanted to sell tires be getting people to drive to nice restaurants.
And, yes, for the longest time, Michelin tires were the best that you could buy. Thought I think the Japanese have caught up.
I remember being a "tire buster" for Sears Automotive back in the early 90s. After installing tires on a wheel, we'd put them on a balancing machine to see where to place the lead weights. Michelins almost never needed weights, and if they did, they needed the smallest size. They also marked where to place the tire along that valve stem for more accurate balancing. No other manufacturer did that.
Plus, their beads were the easiest to mount.