> The ancient curve tracers, like the widely used Tektronix 576 or 577, could do things for which you would need much more expensive SMUs than that shown in TFA.

If I'm searching right, Tektronix 576 had an MSRP of $18,000 back in 1970, or $150k in today's dollars. They were very, very expensive.

Of course you can now find them on eBay for much less, but you're buying an ancient device that's living on borrowed time, that's going to take up an unreasonable amount of space in any home lab, and that you will be hauling to the dump because it won't even be worth the shipping cost in another decade or so.