That said, almost every analog recording setup in the 21st century will actually be a hybrid setup.
Yeah...I see that more and more...people bringing analog hardware into their previously all ITB work...and some even trying out tape or returning to it to augment their ITB rigs.
It's not about choosing one or the other...I think people are simply realizing that you can expand your work options and production palette.
I wasn't the one who decided that Dolby A or DBX was necessary for tape recording. All the pro studios who installed noise reduction systems apparently felt it was necessary. Its been a long time since I played with tape, but even back in the 70s, I never felt that the Ampex decks I worked with gave the same degree of "black" that you get from digital. Nor did the Tascam decks. It was clearly evident to me when I put in the paper leader tape between tracks of a master tape. As soon as you hit that section it when dead silent. Once the magnetic tape hit the head, the noise level jumped. Maybe I was just unduly sensitive to it, but it was always there and it always bothered me.
Trying to emulate things like tape saturation or tube compression is, in my opinion, more of an "artistic" aspect. If you TRULY want fidelity to the original signal, adding saturation distortion (and it IS distortion) is not improving fidelity. If you feel it makes the sound pleasing, that's perfectly fine. Having a tube compress is not fidelity to the original signal. If might give you a sound you prefer, but it is reducing the original dynamic range.
I'm not saying digital is perfect, but overall, I think it has gotten closer to the original source in terms of dynamics and frequency response. Some other aspects are tougher to nail down, primarily soundstage and "imaging". I don't have any way to measure it, but I do feel there is a difference between when I listen to a mix at 96K and 24 bits and when I render it to 44.1/16. Its more of the space around the instruments. That's even with my old ears, and the tinnitus and loss of high frequencies that I have to deal with. But this is all my opinion. You're welcome to feel differently, no problem. In the end, all I REALLY want to do is listen to (and maybe even play) some good music.
I understand you didn't decide the use of NR...
...I just thought that your comment about it being needed to make tape useful wasn't totally accurate.
Sure, if you go back to some of the older pro decks, or the newer pro-sumer, small format decks...NR might be necessary to "clean up" the tape.
I do know that many of the later pro format decks, while maybe having NR onboard or as an add-on...were also used without NR by many people...and I think that certainly depended on a few factors...the tape used, the calibration of the decks, the speed, and the music style. So like, if you're tracking a jazz quartet, you may want ultimate tape fidelity...higher speed, not recording super hot and saturating the tape, and maybe also NR...but same deck used for Rock session, the speed might be halved, the tape hit real hard, and NR turned off.
My only point was that NR isn't always necessary, and tape recording is still very useable without it.
Interestingly...since you mentioned Ampex...the Ampex ATR 102 in either 1/4" or 1/2" is considered "THE" stereo mixdown tape machine...and it has no NR.
I agree with you that with digital, there was in "some cases" a subtle difference heard between 24/96 vs. 16/44.1...but again, I think the usage is the key as to how important that difference is. With pristine live recordings...classical, jazz or certain specialized music styles...keeping things at the highest quality levels makes a difference if you are after the best fidelity...but with Rock/Pop/Country (classic, alt, indie, etc)...it's less about absolute fidelity, and it's more about the total vibe...which is why I think a lot of digital work utilizes analog sims/plugs, because analog definitely has "vibe", and it's varies with different analog hardware and/or the tape deck or the tape that is used....so it's like having quite a large spice rack to flavor your music with.
Digital on it's own really has zero vibe...which is sometimes what you may want...but I don't think that's what most people are after, judging by the amount of FX/processing that gets used with most ITB productions.