I think there may be a touch of rose tinted glasses looking back. Rather than me bore you (more) have at look at this article from 2015 about the various formats - the large single round robin format does not fare well.
World Cup Formats: taking a look at the data - you will need to click through to get the graphs (well, I did).
I think the memories are more of the fact it was the first in coloured clothing under lights, well hosted across A/NZ and South Africa's readmission / performance.
One thing that was really well done was games taken to country locations - this would be perfect fo AMvAM matches int he future where teams can "take over" a city - with people in say, Orange, choosing Hong Kong or PNG to barrack for....