Film also accepts rays that strike the surface at oblique angles, while this results in color shift or resolution problems on digital. It was actually technically easier to design high-quality lenses for film because optics did not need to be telecentric (nodal point of the lens placed at infinity). So yes, film was very much "more forgiving" than a digital sensor in this respect.
For example, a lot of early wide-angle designs (eg Biogon) were symmetric, and actually went into the throat of the camera, because if you had a 28mm lens, the nodal point was actually 28mm away from the film. That type of design went away when SLRs needed to put the mirror there, and we switched to lenses that are essentially "reverse telephotos" (the nodal point is farther away than the focal length). Modern lenses for digital cameras take this another step further and put the the nodal point at infinity, so all the rays of light are coming straight into the sensor at a 90 degree angle of incidence. However, since the lens must be a very strong reverse telephoto to accomplish this, it constrains the rest of the design and requires more elements to correct properly.
For example, a lot of early wide-angle designs (eg Biogon) were symmetric, and actually went into the throat of the camera, because if you had a 28mm lens, the nodal point was actually 28mm away from the film. That type of design went away when SLRs needed to put the mirror there, and we switched to lenses that are essentially "reverse telephotos" (the nodal point is farther away than the focal length). Modern lenses for digital cameras take this another step further and put the the nodal point at infinity, so all the rays of light are coming straight into the sensor at a 90 degree angle of incidence. However, since the lens must be a very strong reverse telephoto to accomplish this, it constrains the rest of the design and requires more elements to correct properly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecentric_lens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang%C3%A9nieux_retrofocus
https://www.casualphotophile.com/2017/10/11/jupiter-12-35mm-...