Ime, quality old glass tanks with worn out seals tend to start leaking slowly. Glass tanks that have big blowouts have more often than not been poorly constructed or are improperly set up on an insufficient stand or have heavy decor, equipment, objects leaning or on top of them for whatever reason.
Its also my opinion that a lot of catastrophic blowouts occur when the owner has an oopsie moment carelessly cleaning or decorating their tank.
Another big factor with large tanks is the care that was taken to properly move it from place to place. Pushing, pulling, or dropping the tank can potentially compromise a seal.
Also worth talking about are the plastic top braces on a lot of tanks. Even though theyre usually a fairly tough polymer, they can often be weakened by prolonged exposure to lighting or just time itself and will actually be stretched out in the case of some very old tanks, failing to properly brace the tank and leading to a failure. Obviously glass tanks with cracks or broken braces are not to be trusted.