Hi Laz,
Welcome to the forum.
This forum is used (mainly) by subscribers to The Tape Project. So, the majority of it's members are using reel to reel for playback of high quality pre recorded tapes.
You might get a better understanding if you take a look at the home page.
http://www.tapeproject.com/Many of us also have collections of pre recorded tapes from the late 50's to the mid 80's.
The recorders you mentioned were intended for playing back these older tapes as well as recording radio and records as you mentioned. It was not unusual for folks to record local live performances and eventually, their bands in what was the beginning of home studios. Home studios were fueled by the availability of multi track recorders that were affordable and easy to use.
There are quite a few professional recording studios who still roll tape. Even ones who record primarily to computers often have a machine or two to bounce tracks through. The reasons for this are many but the bottom line is that they like the sound.