Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can do this with rsync as well, including the hardlinked-to-older file method. Have a look at the `--link-dest` option to rsync.
Arq is like Tarsnap/Attic/Borg in that it uses shift-resistant block deduplication - it can efficiently cope with small modifications to existing files, where rsync would have to clone the entire file for each new version.
In the larger scope of things, that level of deduplication has never been something I've found all that valuable; but of course most binary files I backup are images and music files; not ones which change frequently (if ever).