Not only that, but in fact, on IBM Mainframe (main COBOL platform), the new hardware decimal floating-point is actually better in all respects than original pac

Not only that, but in fact, on IBM Mainframe (main COBOL platform), the new hardware decimal floating-point is actually better in all respects than original packed decimal fixed-point representation that COBOL programs often use. (So it's not true that floating-point has been standardized many years ago, recent latest IEEE 754 includes decimal floating-point as it was implemented on IBM mainframe.)