I remember those!
In a way I loved the linear editing era. Of course with the huge reel-to-reel machines the pre-roll time was way too high.
But I remember that reporters and directors came well prepared to the editing suite. Making a rather long new report of like 3 minutes was done in no time. Especially on the digi-betacam (or even betacam SP) machines.
No it seems that those guys want to build their show in the editing set. Of course now we are more flexible. We can take parts out of the edit without re-editing everything after that change. But editing takes way longer nowadays. Sometimes I regret the linear to non-linear switch over.
Fortunately, NLE changed a lot for the better, too. I can work at home. Before I had to invest in a million dollar editing suite. I think this all even qualifies me as an old guy. Haha!