I wonder if making using of zstd's long mode (`--long`) and/or multithreading support (`-T0` to use all threads) would close the displayed performance gap with `pigz`. Doesn't seem like either were used, which is odd considering the comparison made and the file used.
I typically don't make use of standard archive formats these days for my own file storage. If I want just pure maximum compression, I'll often use a long-range matcher like FreeArc's srep [1] or lrzip [2] combined with either fast-lzma2 [3] using a p7zip fork [4] for multithreading and fast compression or use mcm [5] or zpaq for max ratio with longer compression time.
However, my truly preferred way is using dwarfs [6], which features some really good deduplication and (by default) zstd compression while being mountable. Most of my files are highly compressed and easily accessible without needing to full decompress them. I even made a small script to convert and create AppImages that instead use this [7]. Admittedly, I don't make use of PAR2 or anything of the sort, but I could just do that the traditional way if I so wished.
The only way I can ever justify buying a printer these days is snagging them off local school district surpluses.
I managed to get two different Office LaserJets for like $10 each and they work wonderfully (and it will probably be cheaper for me to buy a new printer off the school than buy more ink when I inevitably run out).