The 2min number is likely an average over a large volume of drives.
An LTO 9 tape has over a kilometer(!) of tape in it.
You can spool the tape only so fast without risking damage to either the tape itself or the cartridge so if your file is at the end of the tape you’ll be waiting for a while.
It's a single tape. Even without any kind of fast forward, the write speed of LTO-9 is 6 meters per second. It takes three minutes to go completely end to end.
An LTO 9 tape has over a kilometer(!) of tape in it.
You can spool the tape only so fast without risking damage to either the tape itself or the cartridge so if your file is at the end of the tape you’ll be waiting for a while.