given the 'loss' of the telemetry data , ... given the vital and irreplaceable data lost.
The underlined words are your arrogant and presumptive attempt to amplify the apparent value of the data and thus the apparent absurdity in its loss.
loss by erasure is even more ridiculous than misplacement
No, the world is not required to agree with your uninformed personal judgment on this point.
Due to an unforeseen problem with a new tape vendor, the only media available to record telemetry from subsequent unmanned (i.e., non-Apollo) missions in progress were the older Memorex tapes. The missions were already in progress and operating according to an inexorable and unalterable timetable; at a certain point data
were going to be sent, and the inability to capture it as it arrived would result in its being forever lost. These are not simply off-the-shelf media. They are manufactured on demand and must qualify to a very high standard of mechanical tolerance and chemical purity. One may not simply run down to Radio Shack and buy new ones.
Apollo telemetry had already been studied. The video component of Apollo 11 had already been read out from the proprietary, unique format embedded in the unified S-band onto industry-standard NTSC videotape. Important and valuable elements of the downlink telemetry had already been studied in the form of paper strip charts and their lessons incorporated into subsequent Apollo missions. In fact, when the tapes were reused, the Apollo program had already ended. Specific telemetry information is largely useless for subsequent programs because only broader concepts carry from one program to another. The tapes were largely only backups for the strip charts that were also reading out values in real time. For example, when the Apollo 13 crisis emerged, the EECOM and other teams did not go back to telemetry tapes. They were using paper strip charts that were being written as the mission progressed.
Sure there was an interest in preserving Apollo telemetry in its original form. That's why it had been preserved for as long as it was. But the problem NASA faced was in balancing the archival value of telemetry that had largely served its practical purpose had had only historical or nostalgic value against the need to acquire and preserve new telemetry from new missions, which had yet to be seen and analyzed by anyone. The decision in that case is unfortunate, but clear and correct -- the Apollo telemetry tapes were reused in the furtherance of NASA's primary mission at the time the need arose. Trying to paste other requirements, motives, or constraints on them in retrospect is futile and silly.
