Imagine investing in a 1PB tape, and then accidentally dropping it on the floor. Even just setting it down on a table too hard might brick it, or mean it needs to go back to the manufacturer for a expen$$$$$ive repair.
Gravity seems like an unreasonably large risk for such a valuable object. Maybe the ideal environment for these is a zero-gravity one? Perhaps the future of "big data" is somewhere out in space?
4AA4_3781EEE.pdf
In particular, they test dropping tapes hundreds of times from 30" AFF onto concrete in different orientations, making sure they'll still work properly. Not every vendor does this, but they all like to be perceived as archival quality and durable.
I wouldn't be too worried.
I remember being pretty rough with audio and video cassettes, but then again those aren't digital so some damage probably wasn't noticeable.
But more importantly, if its an LTO-style tape, it'll be fairly solid.
even without the case, you can drop them and not worry too much. Lord knows I've dropped loads in my time.