Tape is wonderful at preserving evidence - fingerprints, hairs, fibers. Tape preserves this, especially on the sticky side, even if the body's been out there for a year.
I think most writers feel like they're on the outside looking in much of the time. All of us feel, to a certain extent, alienated from the stuff going on around us.
But audio is a component of video, so there's always been that anyway, and although we've never expressed a visual side apart from the Grateful Dead movie, I don't find it that remote, you know what I mean? It's a departure of sorts, but it's like a first cousin.