Yes; I should imagine there are still thousands of screen-film radiography (SFR) systems around the world (not to mention old-school radiographers) that continue to produce perfectly adequate images of diagnostic quality.
CR (and DR) set-ups can also lead to "poor" practices too ... sloppy collimation, for example, and over-exposure(s) due to "dose creep"; both resulting in higher doses to the patient.
However, most of the stuff I have seen these days seems to assume an "onward march" ... SFR->CR->DR. There is probably a nice career to be made there in "project managing" all those system upgrades (or evolutions).
You point about cost is also a good one. In the various articles and papers I have seen excitedly espousing the virtues and advantages of "digital radiography" (and there are indeed many) I have hardly ever seen "cost" being mentioned (and certainly no valid cost-benefit analysis).
Anyway, back to tubes. What do you reckon about the feasibility of prolonging the usefulness of old (deteriorating) x-ray tubes by employing the "magic" (digital processing) of CR? Perhaps you have already done (or are now doing) this?
WEASIS looks interesting (I had not come across it before).
