Mark and all,
I am going out on a barcon here, but my recollection (that which is withering faster than any part of my physical anatomy) is that 'cuff-less' came first and the cuffs were added later. My database or timeline is limited to my own bike parts, meaning QRs and fingertip controls (nowadays 'barcons') with the original rubber tips still intact, the most of them (60s) not wearing cuffs. Mine with cuffs are those that I picked up later (70s) for added adornments or replacements.
Then again, you're reading the missive of the person who anxiously bought on eBay an old-looking Campy 'shifter cover' - authentic Campy but with SCRIPT versus block letters (!) - that turned out to be not an antique but practically new and off of a mountain bike (yikes and horrors). Ergo, Campy sure MAKES a lot of different SOFT rubber shifter covers!
JB Froke, Pebble (grumpily wondering who or if anyone is curtailing the ocean-bound mudflows from the mountain bike portion of the Sea Otter Classic) Beach, CA