My old vintage sewing machine was not fussy and I've mostly used Coats & Clark Dual Duty for the last 40 years for top, bobbin, quilting and piecing with no issues. I've only started getting concerned with thread in the last 5 years or so, mostly because I was using a friend's long arm to quilt down.
About a year ago I was given a modern machine and my friend warned me it was a little fussy but that it liked Aurifil -- which it does and I do too. I'm currently trying a thin-trilobal thread for my bobbin and am liking it. Back when I started quilting the quilt police said no no no never use poly thread, dual duty is bad... But now we have poly threads developed for quilting.
To see if your thread is too old to use, just try a breaking/stress test. If you can break the thread by hand by tugging on it, it is a no go for quilting (and I would think most things...). I have some vintage spools that are still quite usable, I have others that aren't.
I can say one thing, thread costs a lot nowadays!