I don’t want to buy games digitally anymore until I can actually own the game rather than the license. But then some freak on eBay is asking for $500 for a copy of Klonoa on the PS1. Then there are even more freaks who are willing to bid higher than that! Then the smaller retro games stores around me base their prices on these prices. There needs to be a price cap on this stuff. We can’t let all of the richest nerds control the economy.
You can make many backup copies of your rom collection. Not so with old discs that are not reading, or carts suffering from bitrot or physical damage.
With retro gaming; emulation IS the way forward. Physical media is more of a display piece for nostalgia maniacs, or an investment for speculators.
I know that emulation is good for preservation and accessibility and I am all for it. My preference for physical media comes from wanting to support the mom and pop local stores and, while convenient, I don’t like to have everything stored on a hard drive. All of the consoles I own work perfectly fine and I think it would be a waste for them to rot away in a landfill. Or worse yet, to gather dust on a shelf, unused as some collectors item to be shown off like a taxidermied elk.