Sure, but that's an order of magnitude better than optical drives. Blu-Ray optical media use feature sizes on the order of 100nm (0.1um) and the read head needs

Sure, but that's an order of magnitude better than optical drives. Blu-Ray optical media use feature sizes on the order of 100nm (0.1um) and the read head needs to be able to move in two dimensions to keep it in focus. I repaired a couple of LTO drives, and they are pretty approachable once you disassemble the Ruby Goldberg tape management devices. A lot of LTO complexity also matters for _writing_, not reading. If you're an archivist trying to restore a tape, you don't need to worry about optimal tensioning, calibration, etc. You can also read the tape at a fraction of the normal speed so that your control loops can be much looser.