It was designed to look retro for sure. After all who the heck has cassettes nowadays? I got rid of mine - about 100 to 150 of them - about a decade ago if I recall correctly.
I've actually begun to build up a replacement collection of cassettes. I have an old car that has an early aftermarket AM/FM/Cassette unit in it; and I've owned it since 1980 or so. Lots of memories swirl around the car, and the various digital adapters for the cassette deck are annoying at best. So I decided to use it the way it was designed - and it's just nice to take a break sometimes from the from the digital *everything*. Driving that car is a totally "analog" experience, from the manual 4-speed transmission to the stereo.