That is quite interesting, MoT. Something similar happened among my in-laws (spouses of my sibling group). Only one of them was actually grade-skipped (and that was at teacher initiative), but most of them graduated young because they had birthdays right before the age cutoff for school entry. They all proceeded quite successfully to elite universities.
My parent social group is heavily weighted for homeschoolers, so grade-age lockstep placement is not a group norm anyway. In either direction.
I agree that there was probably more latitude a few decades back than there is now, on our continent as well. Some of the things my parents convinced the local school district to do for us would have required even more effort and persuasion if attempted now. If they would even have allowed them. We were fortunate to have the district's lead psychologist as an ally. Which is part of why I do what I do now.
