I am not that old to have been installing them, but have run into plenty of older still operating equipment that did use only two overload elements and pretty sure it happened on all three phase systems whether grounded phase or not. I know of some instances where those starters are still in operation with only two overloads.
Motor overload protection will not care what is grounded and what is not grounded, it is supposed to monitor motor current for overloading. Short circuit and ground fault protection is where it is more important to not have an interrupt able component in the circuit unless it interrupts all conductors of the circuit.
I think the concept back then, and is still somewhat valid concept, is that if a three phase motor is in good condition and input voltage is balanced the current will be balanced. Only having one overload unit would monitor that but problems arise when imbalance of any kind gets thrown into the picture, and it often happens. Two overload units however will offer fairly good overall protection, because if one phase goes down (fully or partially) it will result in a rise in current in at least one of the other conductors. I think two overloads probably provided sufficient protection in most general duty applications, but at some point they decided we need to monitor all three lines to get better accuracy and better protection. My problem with either situation is I see so many applications where motors are not protected at proper level - that they may as well just have short circuit and ground fault protection only - as they are ultimately going to fail from overload anyway
Even when overload is properly sized, often you may see people resetting them as they continue to run the machine - maybe even every few minutes while the motor continues to get hotter and hotter. If the device is tripping, there is a reason, and most of the time it is not because the trip device is the defect, though that is what owners/managers/operators wish to believe.