In order to create a webdataset we need to create tar files -
so we need to unzip and then recreate the tar file.
Additionally when the files are in GCS in the raw format you can easily review them with the preview (e.g. a wav file can be directly listened within the GCP console - web browser).
I think the main difference is that I can see a value of having access to the raw format within the cloud vendor and not only have it as an archive