Exactly! Even back in 2010 I was thinking, Fax Machine? It's 2010! There's something called e-mail!
Some technology dies hard, even the ones that just need to. There's not much worse tech-wise than calling up a phone number, only to have the Fax Machine pick up when no one else does, because the business can't be bothered to have a separate fax line. :)
That is such a familiar thing! I remember when I got my last printer it made a big deal out of being able to send to a fax and I thoughtthat works have been handy in the eighties lo lol. As you say, some of it dies hard!!
Sounds like you stepped through the time portal known as Radio Shack to get that printer. :)
Faxes were fine when you couldn't send emails, attach documents, etc. A printer just needed to scan and voila.
I get the feeling that there are people out there—contractors and bankers among them—that just really love that little bit of tech. It probably reminds them of the good ol' days when life was simpler—less yelling, not so much plague or instant death, no 24 hour news cycle telling us about plague and death, no social media helping us spread the news about plague and death...
So, it's got to be nostalgia, not practicality. Half the time, you couldn't read the fax anyway. :)
That was the kicker. Sometimes you had to jump through insane hoops to actually get your fax to receive something and then when you did you had this barely legible thinkg printed on shiny looking toilet paper that you couldn't read in a million years!