Parents point is, even if the software to read the format disappears or is much more difficult to run for some reason- if there are published specs, you can rec

Parents point is, even if the software to read the format disappears or is much more difficult to run for some reason- if there are published specs, you can recreate it. This is why non proprietary formats are such a great thing. I would bet that the vast majority if not all image formats that can't be read anymore are due to their spec never being published.