On the other hand, the weak commitment to backward compatibility enables new drive/tape technology to move forward. It’s a good thing that we have LTO9 densitie

On the other hand, the weak commitment to backward compatibility enables new drive/tape technology to move forward. It’s a good thing that we have LTO9 densities. LTO drives have two generations of backward read compatibility, and LTO7 drives are readily available, so those 13-year-old LTO5 tapes aren’t stranded yet. 13+ years is pretty good when most enterprise equipment gets depreciated after ~7 years.