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drives like this will typically be rated for a 5yr operational life.

If there is leakage, I wonder how long it would be before the data could not be recoverable? Could one transplant the platters and 're-charge' the Helium? Or just somehow recharge the old disk? Because unless / until we get some cheap lots-of-bit storage, all the 'stuff' we're generating will not be, in effect, archivable. Is this right?

Dunno, but disks are consumable items - don't kid yourself otherwise.

I expect some drives to fail within 5 years, but I have many that still have data from much longer ago.

It would be a disconcertingly new phenomenon to find every drive in some old archival NAS failed simultaneously, or every one In a collection of external drives, because all drives last exactly 5 years with little variation, even when switched off, due to helium loss.

Yay back to syringes and weird jigs and refilling our computing accessories with weird chemicals.

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