Tape prices are lower, but the drive cost is very outsized. The cheapest drive on B&H is $13,584.05

The cheapest LTO-10 drive. They have LTO-8 drives for less than half that price. And LTO-8 tapes are significantly cheaper per TB because they're not brand new.

For some reason they also have an LTO-5 drive for $1200 and tapes for $20/TB. Which looks a lot better today in a comparison with hard drives than it did a year ago.

Yeah, I said they're spendy... But if you're filling trucks with tapes, the cost of the drive(s) will amortize pretty well.