[Heart-Rest]

A creative response might be to point out that today’s 1-inch thumb drives have a much greater capacity, last much longer, and hold a lot more stuff than their aged 8-inch floppies.

[Vroomfondel]

today’s 1-inch thumb drives ... last much longer

Nope. Anything you have stored on flash is a charge on a capacitor that is slowly draining away.

An article from CMU in 2015 writes that "Today's flash devices, which do not require flash refresh, have a typical retention age of 1 year at room temperature." And that temperature can lower the retention time exponentially.

[Ozark Tom]

But are you claiming it’s hardened to survive as well as the older equipment?