3) Is the NetBSD team planning on doing what I described above in the
         near future?  I think it would be great.

I'm not planning to put the `ft' driver in our tree until, at the very
least, someone changes it to use the standard kernel interfaces for
things like reading, writing, rewinding, etc.  There is no justification
for having the new interfaces it currently uses, and there is certainly
no justification for the driver requiring a special program to do simple
tape operations.