Yeah, true enough, I guess.
I've not gone to Fostex for legacy deck parts, so I'd not know. I do know that I got some Fosatex legacy deck manuals from them, a couple years ago. Also, I did call Fostex about the obsoleted FD-4, and tech support was very thin. I got my answer, that the FD-4 internal HD upgrade I wanted was no longer available. I don't know if this can be used as an indicator. On the flipside, I've never called Tascam tech support, outright, so I have nothing to compare it to. However, it's my opinion that if you called Tascam with a tech question on a reel tape deck, you'd be laughed at & told you're way out of step with the times. Take the above statement as an opinion, only.
The Fostex E-2 is more of a full on pro deck, with center timecode track and Accessory 2 sync compatible plugs and capability. Dolby C NR is standard on the E-2.
The Tascam 22-2 is more of a budget minded unit, with no timecode or other fancy features. Noise reduction would be an add-on component to the 22-2, (the DX-2D).
With that being said, and given that I own an E-2 and not a 22-2, it'll probably seem contradictory if I said that I generally prefer Tascams over Fostexes, when they overlap on types or classes of decks.
Aw, heck,... buy them both!
Tascam: Fostex:
Can't they all just get along?
Heh.