What does it matter? The OP never implied tar itself compresses, just that the mentioned command could try to decompress regardless of what happens underneath.

Optimization died when hw limitations are less severe

Latest also means automatic major upgrades without doing the steps necessary for said upgrade, or breaking functionality/changes.

See: https://medium.com/@mccode/the-misunderstood-docker-tag-latest-af3babfd6375

https://vsupalov.com/docker-latest-tag/

https://cloudmaniac.net/docker-container-never-use-latest-cicd-pipeline/

Having everything on latest seems a very bad idea.