I remember Huggies switching from plastic to cloth back in the 90's.
When they switched from the plastic backed to cloth backed the diapers went downhill in quality.
A good thing about the non stretchy tabs is that the plastic backed diaper would not be loose and could be tightened so they wouldn't sag.
The cloth backed diapers with the stretch tabs today are actually bad because they cause the diaper to sag and fall down.
When the diapers were plastic backed and had no stretchy sides the diaper could be secured tight enough so that they wouldn't slide down on the kid wearing them.
Still all diapers are actually plastic backed underneath the outer cloth covering.