A brief primer (with pictures)
I've read every post in this thread. There's some I agree with and some I don't.
That being said, here is the 70salesguy's take on this question.
There was a time that the only viable option for recording at home was RTR. As some folks had serious money invested in their RTR machines, they liked the option to purchased "prerecorded" RTR tapes. As with any other format, they ran the gamut from marvelous to mediocre.
RTR was also the only viable option for "live" recording. That Woodstock LP set that some are so fond of came about because of some guys toughing it out for 3 days (yes, we know they fell asleep and missed some performances) in that environment and recording it on RTR machines.
Your other viable option for home tape was the infamous 8-track, which really was popular at home primarily due to its wide use as a mobile audio source.
Right up until about 1971, the Compact Cassette, as it was originally known, was a medium only suitable for voice and portable casual use in a lot of combo AM/FM radio Cassette-corders. But Wollensak, Henry Kloss and Ray Dolby would change all of that in 1971 with the introduction of the widely sold first marketable and viable High Fidelity Cassette Deck. The cassette slowly got better with technology and better tape formulations. It had the added bonus of portability and found acceptance for automobile applications, and later the Walkman.
But RTR was still there, in every version from a portable 3" reel machine to huge multitrack machines in the recording studio. The 1/4" tape 1/4 track machine became dominant in the consumer market. In the 70's, you could buy a competent 1/4 track RTR from around $350 all the way up to several thousand dollars. There is no controversy or viable argument against the fact that a high quality RTR machine is superior to a cassette machine. The laws of physics will not be toyed with or altered by anyone's ego.
For old farts like me, who has owned an RTR machine since the early 70s, there is nothing like listening to a well-recorded tape on one of my machines. I still have my first and every other RTR that I have ever purchased. The current total is 6.
Being a bit younger (by your own admission), you may not have ever seen a true high quality machine. The Japanese manufacturers, Akai, Teac, Sony and Pioneer, for example, have built some marvelous machines through the years, and some crap as well.
My favorite RTR manufacturer was Crown of Elkhart, Indiana. They truly built heavy-duty machines designed to operate 18 hours a day for 10 years with only routine maintenance required. I can tell you that to see an hear a well-maintained or restored Crown RTR is a wonderful thing.
Just as with any other component like amplifiers, turntables or speakers, there is a great variance between top of the line and bottom. Here's a couple of examples.
This is an Akai X-150D, a very popular machine among servicemen in the very early 70's. A lot of these came back from overseas, and I bought this one from a serviceman who did just that. A very nice little machine, well-built and reasonably priced.
Next is a Teac A-2300SX, a very nice and well-built performer from the 70's. Nothing fancy but very good and reliable. Sold for about $500 at the time. These turn up occasionally and are most often very good buys.
Next is a Pioneer RT-1020H, a unit that Pioneer sold a LOT of. Quite a few of them survive to this day and provide excellent service. A very nice machine from the mid-70's. This deck is a nice move up and retailed for about $650 in the U.S.
Now at about the same time you could have bought the Pioneer for $650, this next deck, a Crown SX824 configured the way you see it was about $1900.
Now compare and contrast the Pioneer and the Crown, $650 vs $1900? As nice as the Pioneer is, it just isn't built to the same standard that the Crown is.
I have many tapes that were recorded in the mid-70's (that's 35 years ago) on that very Pioneer deck and sound just as good today as the day they were recorded. Many were recorded from a virgin LP, and the LP was shelved. You could play the tape many, many times with no fear of degradation of the sound. Also RTR machines allowed you to record "mix" tapes of your favorite tunes or "party" tapes, just as has been done with cassettes since the mid-70's.
Try to wangle a listening session from an AKer near you that has a quality RTR machine. You might just be "blown away" with what you see and hear!
Even down to the girls in the painting. btw do you recall the artist or name of the painting?