How old are you?

IMO, the 4/8 track really got a bum rap. Audio wise in many ways it was far superior to the cassette that replaced it. Being that the 4/8 track had a much large physical recording surface
(tape width), and the tape moved at twice the speed, and was continuous. That last advantage is a big reason why Disneyworld in the 70's used 4/8 tracks nearly exclusively in one room to do the thousands of unique individual continuous loop sound effects in the entire theme park (it was a very impressive room btw). Wow/flutter was a downside with 4/8 tracks and expected tape jamming at end of useful tape life from being mishandled and often left in hot cars. Cassettes that replaced 4/8 tracks mainly offered smaller/easier packaging, but not inherent better sound quality in the medium. Better studio recording quick progress and the invention of Dolby to help improve cassettes in that era somewhat hid that fact as cassettes became dominant.