I would say GPIB is actually a pretty amazing connection format. You can easily daisy chain them no need for a router/switch, the connection speeds were pretty

I would say GPIB is actually a pretty amazing connection format. You can easily daisy chain them no need for a router/switch, the connection speeds were pretty amazing at the time (and are still OK today), the cables and connectors (although large) are extremely robust. All the labs I know still use cables that are >20-30y old, and people are connecting and disconnecting devices all the time. That said I wouldn't want to use GPIB for connecting a laptop to a hard drive or anything like that.