Another "feature" that the article didn't mention:

The entire show stays intact - all the original edits and songs.

We have found, lately, that even if older TV shows are still streaming on a platform somewhere, that the streamed versions are different from what originally aired.  Licensing issues mean that sometimes a song that was used in the original episode is no longer owned by the same company, etc., so we've run into episodes of shows where the specific 90's era songs have been replaced with generic knockoffs.  This is deeply weird in any case, but is particularly jarring with more "meta" shows like Scrubs, etc. that directly comment on the music.

More bafflingly, some streaming platforms seem to only have the "TV Edits" of the shows.  There's no technical reason that a show I'm streaming on my own timeframe needs to be edited for time to fit the ~38minute runtime of a 1-hour commercial TV show, but they do it anyhow.  Slightly long special episodes or pilot episodes of shows like Firefly and Doctor Who (or really anything that comes from the BBC) are particularly vulnerable to this.

Our physical media collection is (conservatively) somewhere north of 630 titles (on nearly 800 discs).  Yes, it's a lot to make space for and manage, but most of the titles were purchased cheaply and we generally only buy stuff that we honestly will re-watch (a few gifts and mis-purchases aside), so it's "worth it" for us.

/Chief Cat Herder

Boudyro: To buy anything means it's not consistently available streaming, and I know I'll want to watch it often. Nowadays that's mostly old 80s movies that aren't always available. For example the last one I bought from Apple was the Last Starfighter. IIRC it was $3.99 to rent, $13.99 to buy. I've already watched it enough times since buying it to have made that a cost-effective choice.

Funny you used this as an example.  We have a 13 year old and wanted to show her Last Starfighter.  We picked up the 25th Anniversary Blu Ray for $5.50, shipped.

I'll take the minor hassle of storing it for that price difference.  Older movies are CHEAPEST on physical media - the streaming services are always asking the same price range as new movies, but for anything other than "limited edition" or other very rare items, the old discs are pennies on the dollar.

sensitive yet dangerous: Even if you have physical media, make copies. I have several DVD sets where at least one of the discs has succumbed to some form of bit rot. I should get one of those Domesday Project LD adapters.

This is my nightmare. I have soooo many discs.

I need to invest in some kind of auto-ripping box with a giant-ass NAS drive that I can setup under my desk at home and just commit to trying to feed it a few discs every day while I work.  It'd still take months, but at least I'd be making progress.

Anything that requires me to manage the ripping operation, or click and type things... forget it.  Too many discs.