Sure, cost had a lot to do with it. For profit it not, archiving footage back then was expensive. And even those that did Dave forage ran the risk of having it

Sure, cost had a lot to do with it. For profit it not, archiving footage back then was expensive. And even those that did Dave forage ran the risk of having it burn up or simply degrade. There are lota of cases were someone tried to save records, only to have them rot, get eaten, get lost, etc.