That's a great point. For example, I recently got back into film photography and I found that if you want to get a 40-year-old camera today, you'll probably be buying it from a collector. Without them, these wonderful, obsolete tools would have gone in the landfill long ago.

There are definitely cameras that fall into the collectible category. But I would have thought that 1980-era DSLRs were still pretty available from used camera stores. (I haven't personally checked; maybe run-of-the-mill film cameras son't move quickly enough.)

Duh. Not DSLRs of course. It's too ingrained at this point.

Good point! And there are many fantastic film cameras from long ago. I just bought a Nikon F2 film camera (my second) yesterday. Many of those old film cameras and such a joy to shoot with.

Different US States do provide this function... One of the best (and the first 1901) is Alabama https://archives.alabama.gov/