my older brother had a weekend job where he would go and change backup tapes for some company on the weekends. he'd bring his Amiga and we'd play video games while we waited for the tapes to do their thing. I was pretty young so I don't remember the details, but they had to rewind/seek/? which took a long time.
Those were most likely backup tapes made specifically for data like DLT or LTO, Travan, etc. DAT and 8mm (Data8) could legitimately be used for backup. VHS was never a widespread backup medium especially when affordable more reliable options were readily available in the 90s - DVHS itself flopped and backup onto consumer VHS was always a gimmick.
Tape is still widely used for backup, it’s not quite dead.
While never popular, Metrum/MountainGate VHS drives and libraries saw significant use by at least a few large customers for a number of years, so were presumably more than a gimmick (source: personal tech support experience).
Note that, in spite of the recording media (S-VHS, IIRC, not D-VHS) used, these drives were rugged, expensive, rack-mount devices and were never marketed as consumer products.
