when I was young, I don’t remember that the canned, diced tomatoes were even available yet. We bought canned whole ones and squished them for recipes in our fists :-)
(And I think they were better than the chopped-up ones are now.)
It really depends on the recipe. For Vodka sauce, San Marzano tomatoes don’t really work for me, but the diced tomatoes are perfect.
In my family we took the lid off of the whole tomatoes and used the sharp edge of the lid to cut the tomatoes while they were still in the can. Just had to be careful not to get cut!