Bad at quoting, good at digesting and regurgitating. The concepts are preserved even if quotes aren't.

I'd rather a digital copy exist in someone's hands than a rotting physical copy.

But you don't have access to this copy. The digital copy is removed and all you get is paraphrased content. Some frontier models have been explicitly forbidden from recalling exact quotes in system prompt.

It almost seems like you're suggesting that having Claude generate a paraphrased book is as good as having the original book but i don't think that could be your intention?