Latest also means automatic major upgrades without doing the steps necessary for said upgrade, or breaking functionality/changes.
See: https://medium.com/@mccode/the-misunderstood-docker-tag-latest-af3babfd6375
https://vsupalov.com/docker-latest-tag/
https://cloudmaniac.net/docker-container-never-use-latest-cicd-pipeline/
What does it matter? The OP never implied tar itself compresses, just that the mentioned command could try to decompress regardless of what happens underneath.