Why no built-in TBC in 1980+ VCRs?

[DVtyro]

I am browsing old video-related magazines, and it is clear that digital in all shapes and forms became very hot in mid-late 1980s, so much so that many VHS VCRs bore "DIGITAL" in capital letters. Sure, they were not D-VHS machines, but had various digital features, in particular PiP and rock-solid freeze frame.

To display a clean freeze frame a VCR needs a frame buffer, which, if I understand it correctly, was the most expensive part of a TBC until mid-1990s, when RAM price dropped 100x within, like, two years. Actually, TBC does not even need a full frame buffer, just several lines is good enough.

But reading reviews of various "super VCRs" that were sold for $1.5-2.5K, I don't see any mention of TBC, why? Was it a deliberate policy and/or agreement of VCR manufacturers with movie studious to dissuade people from copying tapes? Or maybe to dissuade people from using consumer-grade VCR in pro setting? Was it a belief that consumers would not care for TBC but would care for PiP? Anyone has an insight?

Or maybe the models with clean freeze frame had a TBC, but manufacturers preferred not to mention it, again, to dissuade people from using the machines in pro setting?