I'll take the last one: would I be better off with digital download material and forgoing DVDs entirely?
That's entirely your call. How much is video quality valuable to you? Personally, even though I appreciate a bright, clean, crisp image, I care about content more and there isn't that much I really like. I've got some Alpha Blue Archives DVDs--they get stuff that was released on 8 or 16mm film and looks like it was stored in the trunk of someone's car since Deep Throat first came out. That's god-awful image quality. But if the stuff on the screen is something I like, I'll take that over a blu-ray of stuff that doesn't do it for me.
I like DVDs as a format because they don't crash. I've had a few self-burned DVDs go bad but very few commercially-purchased ones die (none of them porn). But I've had hard drives crash, or files get corrupted, several times. Same thing with CDs or even LPs vs. MP3s. If worse comes to worst, I can pull a CD or LP and rip it again if I lose the MP3.
Last thing: I've never talked about this with anyone else so maybe I'm alone, but I don't think so: I think a person's porn horizon isn't that far away. We think in terms of the porn we value now as something we'll like for a lifetime. I'm hard pressed to think of anything I loved 20 years ago (porn-related) that I still enjoy now. There are a couple of scenes I like but more for nostalgia's sake than anything. Part of it may be over-familiarity, but part of it may be my evolving interests. Either way--I personally wouldn't put too big a premium on keeping everything for the long haul. Not if you're going to keep acquiring more.
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