Better than crappy 80s cassettes yeah but not lossless. One of my favourite albums is Fresh by Sly and the Family Stone and that famously sounds a bit weird because apparently perfectionist Sly overdubbed so obsessively he wore the tape thin

When they’re brand new and in good shape, they’re not lossless, but they are about as good as you can get in the analog world. The problem is that the tapes are a physical media and will deteriorate over time. Or, even worse, they might get destroyed either by accident (like in a fire) or on purpose (like when they destroyed episodes from “Dr Who” and “the Tonight Show”).