Most of my plot is 15 feet wide, and some parts only 12. I usually make the tapes in 5 feet lengths, so I know three will fill a complete row if needed, say for carrots. I made few this morning, as it was wet and no chance of getting on my plot.
But as you correctly observe, it is especially useful for part rows, and succession sowing. It suits me because I tend to grow a wide variety of stuff, and am happy to produce a few feet each of Kohl Rabi, young turnips, nasturtium leaves, asparagus peas, radish, spring onions, etc etc, but a full row of any of these vegetables would be more than me and Mrs Beersmith would need.
I fully agree it would get exceedingly tedious to knock out tape by the hundreds of feet!