The internet is flooded with pop culture bullshit. The Library contained precious works from some of the greatest geniuses in history--works that we know exist but were forever lost.
On the other hand, it is still literally true that the internet also contains (although minuscule in proportion) precious works from some of the greatest geniuses in history, that you will not finish reading in your lifetime.
My point is that it's not like there's any shortage of great reading materials. Unless you want some specific materials from the library of Alexandria, it does not make much sense to miss it.
There's still people that care relatively little for the study of the past. The internet is also filled with lots of things that aren't "pop culture bullshit"
After I look at what careful study of great geniuses of the past and high culture did for us in the 1940s and ever since, forgetting the bulk of it (less technical stuff) is probably best. Most of the (intellectual) past is an albatross.
I don't know that we necessarily miss it for the information that was in it, but I think we certainly miss it for the progress we lost without it.
Electricity was discovered and even used in the ancient middle east. Steam powered perpetual motion devices were constructed, but never applied to locomotion.
Can you imagine where we would be now as a species if ideas like these were allowed to propagate across the Mediterranean thousands of years ago? Steam powered devices are only 350+ years old, and your grandpa's grandpa probably did't have electricity in his house.
In what way was electricity used? (I support your overall point that better preservation would've sped progress, and wish to know if there's something I didn't know.)
I find it hard to believe I'm reading this comment on Hacker News, if there was any group of people where I would expect the value of such a trove of knowledge about the past to be estimated at close to its true value.
