Other reasons:

• Economics. Making a long roll is more expensive than cards. Shipping cubes is more space efficient than cylinders. If one section of the tape is damaged, it can't be sent to customer, but if cards are damaged, such as with oil from cutting machine, just replace them with non-damaged cards.
• Structure: You can make a card stiffer, and it will resist damage and wear more than the paper tape. If you make the tape thicker , then it breaks down faster and you get less length per diameter of roll.
• Ergonomics: Human handle hand-sized things more efficiently. If it is substantially smaller or larger then it is less easy to use and more easy to break/harm.
• Adjacent markets improve economy of scale. Using the same stuff as 3x5 cards, birthday cards, signs, or such means you can have a larger market for the same operational equipment and same fundamental process. People don't use paper tape rolls for birthday cards, or study notes.
• (repeat) Modularity: the tape is a single unit while each card is its own unit.
• standardization: it is easier to standardize the system on the card than the tape, and once standardized it allows better economy of scale
• many sensors prefer to operate on a planar surface than on a cylindrical one.

Other reasons:

• Economics. Making a long roll is more expensive than cards. Shipping cubes is more space efficient than cylinders. If one section of the tape is damaged, it can't be sent to customer, but if a few cards are damaged, such as with oil from cutting machine, just replace them with non-damaged cards.
• Coding repair. If you make a coding error on one card, then all the others do not need to be replaced to fix the problem.
• Structure: You can make a card stiffer, and it will resist damage and wear more than the paper tape. If you make the tape thicker , then it breaks down faster and you get less length per diameter of roll.
• Ergonomics: Human handle hand-sized things more efficiently. If it is substantially smaller or larger then it is less easy to use and more easy to break/harm.
• Adjacent markets improve economy of scale. Using the same stuff as 3x5 cards, birthday cards, signs, or such means you can have a larger market for the same operational equipment and same fundamental process. People don't use paper tape rolls for birthday cards, or study notes.
• (repeat) Modularity: the tape is a single unit while each card is its own unit.
• standardization: it is easier to standardize the system on the card than the tape, and once standardized it allows better economy of scale
• many sensors prefer to operate on a planar surface than on a cylindrical one.