re: You would think and hope, but...
Isn’t digital data on these disk a bunch of bumps? If so, they would need to be able to see, and then decode the bumps. So in a way, this data is physical data because it is stored as bumps on the disk. Imagine these bumps blown up to visible size and chiseled into rock.
I am not sure how visual data is stored as these bumps. I am guessing it tells what color each pixel should be and the position for that pixel. Audio would be a little different. Text would probably be the easiest to decode.
I don’t know the full details on magnetic tape, but I don’t think it can make a similar claim.