A big advantage to paper tape is it could be edited. With scissors and tape. You could do an 'optical search' to find a pattern. Punch the characters you are

A big advantage to paper tape is it could be edited. With scissors and tape. You could do an 'optical search' to find a pattern. Punch the characters you are looking for on a short strip. Overlay the search tape on top of the master tape. and move the master tape from start to finish. Worked on a system (non computer, fixed digital logic) using paper tape in the 1970's. No knowledge of computing and only minimal electronics. Always wondered why there were 2047 programmable steps in the system !