> ("65536-byte tape record too large for 32256-byte user buffer") and
> unreadable backups.

Not to minimize the problem, but there's an obvious workaround in the
form of

dd bs=65536 if=(whatever) | tar (whatever)

> However, it's a serious regression in functionality to not support
> larger blocksizes on _read_, leaving people unable to restore old
> backups...

No, just to be unable to restore them the obvious way.  Unless dd has
been broken too, you can surely read them and restore them as above.

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