My 2011 car has ECUs for: engine, brakes, ABS, air bag, air conditioning, alarm. All of those are connected to a gateway, that is another ECU.
Do you want parking sensors? That's another ECU. Multimedia? That's one or two.
Cars of 2000 have not much less ECUs. Consider also that components to build such ECUs are now totally obsolete and out of production.
My old 1997 Town Car has about as many controllers as my 2011 Crown Victoria does (many of them are even the same parts), and the 2021 300S I just ordered doesnt have many more.
Though the 1997 Town Car, had many more controllers than a 1997 Taurus for comparison.
