For me the biggest thing was that the tapes had been sitting for 15 years, then discovered and treated as though they were something valuable. If they were so important, why were they forgotten on a shelf for 15 years?

Wait until you have to clean out a parent's house with a rooms full of stuff saved because they thought the grandkids might find it interesting. Here's the reality: they don't. My mother saved boxes and boxes and boxes of photos. None of them ever sorted, or put in albums. Just thrown in boxes. Saved for decades. Was it hard to throw them away? Yes, a little. There were a lot of moments of my childhood there. But if I asked myself honestly, was I going to do anything with them other than put them on a shelf at my house? The answer was no. I'd advise sparing your kids that burden.

A friend of my mother's had saved every canceled check she ever wrote. Boxes of them, because she thought her kids or grandkids might be interested in them some day. Their reaction was likely: What's a check?

If you really cherish something, and it regularly brings happiness to your life, by all means save it. But do it for yourself, not for what you think your descendants will find interesting. And if it's been in a closet for 5 years, ask yourself why you are keeping it.

Asking "why" doesn't imply condemnation, does it?

At HN we assume best intention, asking why is how we learn about other people and their reasoning.

Of course it may be different than ours. But isn't that how we learn and are exposed to new ideas?

IMHO we should encourage more respectful "why?" questions.