I'm not sure about that. With an digital copy, you still have something that is yours, just like with vinyl. I think people still want to see that they "own" something they pay for.
Also, there is an emotional attachment to music and movies. I think half the reason people buy television season DVDs is to say, "that's my favorite show" as sort of an expression as that DVD sits on their shelf.
And there's also the threat that the media goes away if it's in the "cloud". Am I going to risk losing my copy of my favorite album and trust that to Apple or Amazon? I wouldn't.
Agree on all of your points -- for today. I'm absolutely one of those people that was proud of my CD / DVD collection. It took up an entire wall in my living room. When I moved to the UK, I ripped all of my CDs to iTunes, and moved all of my DVDs out of keepcases and into 3-ring binders. Took a little bit of getting used to, but much more convenient. And with digital copies, you don't really have the "showcase" to show everything you own. So it becomes an choice of:
1 - paying per-unit to have a finite set of things that invisibly sit on your computer, ready for when you want to listen to it
2 - paying per-month to have EVERYTHING available, ready for when you want to listen to it.
In my mind, the network performance is the only drawback right now. Once network speeds / coverage are up to it (and it won't take much more for music -- this isn't video we're talking about) and the performance of local vs. cloud is equal, I honestly can't see any advantage to "owning" the music. I'm not trying to be argumentative -- I'm honestly wondering if I'm missing something. In London, network performance / coverage is great, and I've been using Spotify almost exclusively. Looking at my playlists, I've added (on average) 2.5 complete albums a week, plus a handful of one-off tracks / singles. That's 10 albums a month for £10 a month. Can't beat that.
Yes, when you end your subscription, you don't have anything left "to show" -- but you also don't have anything if you stop paying your cable bill, if you stop paying your water bill, if you stop paying your electric bill, etc. You're paying for what you're using. And paying much less than the cost of "owning" something.
I suppose it all comes down to your music-buying habits. If you're someone who frequently listens to new music, updating your library daily/weekly (even monthly -- one "new release" album costs the same as a monthly Spotify subscription), there's a huge financial advantage to a subscription plan. If you're a casual music listener that has a few albums they listen to over and over, then the buy-it-once, own-it-forever model makes more sense.