I don't really think we grew too reliant on electronics, since basically every sport eventually does. Golf you just have a lot of "on hand" devices(as you said, Rangefinders, GPS, etc), but pretty much everything from powerlifting to bowling relies on some sort of technical assitance either pre-competition or during. There are a factor regarding that "not using" something becomes too much of a downside that you basically forced to, if you want to keep up with others. I can make an example at my other hobby: hunting. Like 30-40 years ago you would grab you hunting rifles, maybe get a pair of binos with you while hunting. Now it's every device that you can imagine: smell hiding equipment, trail cams, rangerfinders, night vision, thermal optics. Everything and anything. Sadly, in uncontrolled environment, you are forced to use it to keep up a lot of the time, and I don't feel like it's a good thing. But that's whole other discussion in my opinion.