Red fives?

Looking at some older Riichi sets I see some of them don't have red fives. While I know some sets have extra red tiles that aren't fives it had me wondering when were red fives introduced? And are they just part of standard play now? Are they standard in big tournaments as well?

I was playing with irl yonma and a person who has been playing riichi longer then me saw my hand and asked "oh are you guys playing with red fives?" Which kinda surprised me. I've read that their an optional rule but every online platform I've played on has them and even a mahjong parlor in my area has them. So I guess I'm asking for a bit of a history lesson