Nah, I went to a Route 128 expo on this sort of technology in that period and pick and place machines were way beyond paper tape. And I did a lot of thru hole

Nah, I went to a Route 128 expo on this sort of technology in that period and pick and place machines were way beyond paper tape. And I did a lot of thru hole soldering when I was growing up in the '70s; the LNBs were surface mount (one of the reasons they asked me to go that expo). Maybe there were some thru hold components I'm not remembering, but there was a definitely a lot of surface mounting (my intro to the concept, I think), and I e.g. remember seeing their reflow oven when I got a tour of the place.