They did. Just not as many. Which is sort of the point.
That is not totally correct. The vast majority of agricultural crops are pollinated by the wind (grains) and some are self pollinated and really don’t need even that (cotton, soybeans, peanuts). The only roll bee’s play in these crops are cross pollination, which mixes up the gene pool, but farmers save very little of their own planting seed any more so there is no real benefit. Just drive out in farm country and you may drive for miles with out seeing a hive. However some vegetable crops do need bee’s for pollination (melons, tomatoes), but there are many wild species of bee’s that usually take care of the job nicely. Honey bee hives today are mainly there just to produce honey. By the way I love honey so I still want to protect them.