Studio tape hiss debate, how much is too much before it ruins a take?

I was cataloging old 4-track cassettes from 1994 last month and noticed my band's demo has audible hiss on the quiet intro that I always blamed on our Tascam. But I dug up the original mixer notes and realized the hiss came from a cheap noise gate we borrowed from a friend, it was adding more noise than it removed. So now I'm split: some say that hiss is part of the basement charm, others say it's just a flaw that hides the actual playing. Has anyone else found a specific technical fault in their old recordings and debated whether to clean it up or leave it? What did you do with yours?

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