While I agree there is a clear need for version control, telling someone looking for evidence that they are already wrong is extremely unhelpful.
Almost everyone had a time when they didn't use version control, at least not properly. I wrote thousands of lines of code on an Amstrad CPC, and the closest I came to version control was cycling between two different tapes when it came to saving my data. When I moved to PC I did the same, with two floppy discs.
I agree that the lack of empirical evidence is probably because it's a pretty fundamental idea that is "common knowledge", but that doesn't mean evidence isn't useful and it also doesn't mean the original poster deserves a bashing.
Almost everyone had a time when they didn't use version control, at least not properly. I wrote thousands of lines of code on an Amstrad CPC, and the closest I came to version control was cycling between two different tapes when it came to saving my data. When I moved to PC I did the same, with two floppy discs.