It's so expected as to be a bit surprising to think anyone would anticipate it to be otherwise. Any derivative work can, at best, be only as good (digital copy) as the original master. An analog derivative can't be better.
Not to mention LPs have things like tracking error, groove noise, off-center records, etc.
LPs do win in durability, though.
And tape shedding, print through, pre-echo, and all the troubles 'old' formulations were prone to, from a physical standpoint.
For their part, '70s era LPs used horrible plastic. I read it was due to the 'energy' crisis', with oil prices through the roof. You always expected a few pops and clicks, some skips and a scratch or two, but some of those era LPs were really unplayable, having so much surface grundge on them.
Here in the US, domestic pressings typically featured garbage QC. CBS (classical) was known as 'Cost Before Sound'. The 'imports' were said to the be the way to go, but not just a few DGG records that came over were just as bad as the domestic releases.
Direct to Disc records were generally much better sonically, but often the program material was second rate. I have a two record set on the Umbrella label (distributed by Audio Technica)--big band tunes, which are a sonic knock-out, but are nowhere as musically involving as many of the old mono recordings, say Gerry Mulligan's arrangements with Gene Krupa and Elliot Lawrence.
Mobile Fidelity did the 'half speed masters', supposedly using what was called 'JVC Supervinyl'. Those were done well, although the program material was often more trendy, and pop oriented.
Of the big labels, to me, Phillips was probably the best. During the transition to digital recording (and before CDs), it was easy to identify sonic differences between analog based LPs and digital. For my ears, the analogs were usually best, with digital LPs sounding rather 'thin', but with pronounced mids and highs.
I'm trying to remember, didn't the record companies charge a premium for their 'digital' LPs? I know when the change-over from mono to stereo happened, stereo discs were always a dollar more.
Open reel was never big in the pre-recorded market. The Barclay Crocker organization was probably the best known.
reel-reel.com
Consumer open reel was mostly used for recording FM broadcasts, or dubbing LPs, so you wouldn't 'harm' your records by playing them over and over. But it was always a richer man's game. If you had a Marantz 10, or McIntosh MR-78, you could afford a ReVox or Crown in order to tape classical concerts over the Boston airwaves, one way at half track! By the late '70s, most plebes were using cassettes, which they could carry over to their cars. And were affordable.
What we put up with, back in the day. Youth will never know what it was like to walk several miles to school, in the snow, barefoot, uphill both ways. No wonder it's all digits and streaming, today!