DL scans the bag at most steps in the process, and you can track your bag on their app. (Checked-in, planeside scan, etc.) On a recent trip back from Argentina, my bag did not show up in Atlanta. The agent was able to see on her screen the exact baggage carousel it was scanned into (the wrong one, flight from Dubai) and we tracked down the bag there.

So there are some airlines that do have a better tracking system. But if the tags gets ripped off, no one is going to be able to track it until they figure out whose bag it is.