> It was the standard for scanners until PDF seemed to dominate the scene.

Probably because it's much easier (for average users with few tools and skills) to print a PDF than to print any sort of non-page-based (e.g., image) file format and have the resulting sheet of paper match the scanned sheet of paper in terms of scale, orientation, position -- assuming both sheets are the same dimensions. Essentially using the file as an intermediary for physical copying of standard paper documents.

I can buy the printing argument. The problem with PDF is that this print-optimized is used more and more for purposes where it will never get printed. For example most manuals will never get printed but they are published in PDF format which is a PITA to use on a phone and hard to search.

Except who knows if your application that supports TIFF files actually supports the features you want (multiple images, the compression format, etc)

Reminds me of USB-C.