Obviously (and sincerely) your knowledge of materials is superior to mine, although I think at some point it is splitting hairs when it comes to materials composition.
Here is a quote I just was led to. I think it summarizes my current thought on this subject.
"People fail to reach their potential as professionals, lovers, parents and people simply because they are not aware of the possible."
I don't believe "everyone knows analog recording so well that all important/good possibilities have been exhausted". I believe people have exhausted what they know about analog recording but not what is possible. And maybe they aren't interested in looking any further, but I don't think analog recording has reached its pinnacle or anywhere near it.
EDIT: "Certainly as far as we will go, anyway, as there's just not a sufficient demand for it."
Don't worry about sufficient demand for it. That implies commercialization. I'm not concerned about that. I want to know what the best possible analog recorder could be.
Barry
EDIT: OK, I'm led to a tangent but it is an important one. Once upon a time in America people did research. They did it to find out what might happen when "A" was put with "B". That's all they wanted to know. But then research changed. It became goal oriented and now people only want to know what will happen to A meeting B if there is the possibility that a practical goal will be reached. Well, I'm doing the first type of research. I don't care if a practical goal is achieved. I want to imagine. I want to explore. I want to know just for the sake of knowing.