Regarding the קאפאטע mentioned in the Mishnah Berurah, my point was that he writes over there that it has become common to wear this garment and therefore he discusses the solution to the issue of tzitzis.
But either way, it is clear from the aforementioned teshuvah of the Nodeh b’Yehudah that the way of all Yidden was “to go long.” There are a few reasons for this. And as mentioned above this changed for practical reasons (getting bnei Yeshivah married).