Manual Air Con and Climatronic are two totally different systems, manual air con was the normal option on all GTI 1.8T Golfs (in lieu of sunroof), and as far as I know climatronic has always been an expensive option on the GTI (approx ?1200 more that a/c?). Only on the V5, V6 4 motion and late SE models (2002/3) has climate become standard fit.
No traction control was standard until approx late 2000. My car is a mid 2000 model and has no ECS/ESP etc. I think it was however available as an extra cost option on earlier models.