Agreed they could, and the singular probable reason they don't is "cost". I'm with you, though - I think archivists / pirates play a vital role in media preservation and there should be carve-outs for certain use-cases. There was a gal who recorded thousands of hours of TV on video cassette tapes, which ended up becoming incredibly important / valuable some decades later.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/marion-stokes-televisi...