There is a lot of debate over exactly what was destroyed in the Universal fire.
Not really. If the tape was in L.A., it went up in smoke. Very, very little was recovered.
Although Universal tried to cover it up and keep it quiet. Fear of lawsuits from artists. They did a worldwide search for backup tapes, as second and third gen copies went to international subsidiaries at the time of original release. Where they were able to obtain a useable tape, that is now billed as the master tape.
About a decade ago, I spoke with the Universal catalog licensing guy on behalf of a reissue label looking for jazz titles. There is kinda only one guy at Universal who does this, and you give him titles, he types them into the database, and tells you if there is tape, hi-res digital, artwork, etc. and any restrictions on licensing. EVERY SINGLE Impulse and Verve title I fed him came back as 'no tape available'. Although he was forbidden from giving a reason, after about 15 titles, he told me to give it up on Verve and Impulse. Easier for him to just tell me what is available on tape than what is not - because it's a pretty short list. Of course, every BN title I fed him came up as 1st gen master available. They weren't in L.A..
The big Coltrane sellers were in NYC at the time of the fire being cut for a Japanese LP series, along with a few other Impulse titles. Since Coltrane ran two tape machines at most sessions and took the second tape home, there are good Coltrane tapes available. Karma has a backup tape available. Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef, among others, are all gone. Why has Stan Getz - Sweet Rain - his greatest Verve album - not seen a vinyl reissue? No tape.
There is, of course, digital for most. But Universal, being a company populated by accountants and lawyers, was well behind Warner, Sony and EMI at the time of the fire. The defacto standard for digital archiving is 32 bit and the minimum is 24/192, but Universal was behind on that, while EMI and Warner were way ahead at 32 bit and Sony has their achives at DSD256 or better.
Given the strides in ADA equipment and mastering, I have no problem with a good vinyl from digital cut.