Yes, it would still be fair. To me, it's fair because the key principles haven't changed: the supply and issuance are still fixed, the system is open and no participant is intrinsically privileged over another.

Even with halvings every 2100 blocks, anybody could come in and start mining at any time. This is fundamentally different to a pre-mine, where even if you wanted to, you can't start mining until a privileged group allow it, which is actually unfair.

Fair doesn't mean equal outcomes. Just because most people didn't know about the network doesn't make it unfair, because the information was still published openly on the internet for anybody to seek out.