Well, your posts bring back so many memories. B&B was the first US daytime soap to air in Greece, and they were airing two episodes a day, and it was such a fan pandemonium all around. I actually remember those episodes well, and you are right that the production values, especially of fashion shows, were top notch back then.
I don't know why I did not get more obsessed with him then (I must have liked them a decade older), but I do remember him as the hottest male on the cast. Or TV. Or the world. Michael Phillip is still quite hot, but when I recall him (and that voice) from back then, oh boy!
Here he is today (he has done some other gigs since)
BTW, B&B has the sad record of having wasted the biggest number of hot men (and women) on daytime, hiring them with great fanfare and dropping them unceremoniously a few months or a year later. So unless this is Eric or Ridge, do not get attached to anyone. I mean, there have been four Thornes--just saying.
Brooke in the 1987-1993 period is Bill Bell's Brooke, the heroine of the show. She is flawed, but also all the things you mentioned. When his son Bradley Bell takes over, he turns her into this serial seductress/sex addict. Brooke when the show first started was a virgin and having sex with Ridge while just engaged was a huge issue.