@Natasha_Jay Pretty much always had a cassette deck on me in the 1990s and I don't think I've ever had one wreck a tape that wasn't already mishandled badly... and I can count the number of unwound tapes I encountered in the wild on one hand with fingers left over.
@BalooUriza @Natasha_Jay from memory it was mostly car stereos that tended to mangle tapes (as they weren't cleaned often due to lack of access) and sometimes the use of sketchy C120s with extra thin tape..