I am very skeptical of your argument. Musicians like that their carefully-planned tracks are warped & distorted in unexpected ways by analog playback devices -

I am very skeptical of your argument. Musicians like that their carefully-planned tracks are warped & distorted in unexpected ways by analog playback devices - as opposed to digital distribution, where the listener hears precisely what the musician intended each time and every time? Even if I agreed with that notion, it still isn't an argument against digital distribution per se. Digitally, we can add (in software) distortion that is similar to that you'd encounter with vinyl. I have some digitally produced tracks that are done this way, actually: even end-to-end digital, the tracks sound as though they are coming off a vinyl record. The aesthetic is maintained and played back exactly as the artist intended. Some folks even introduce distortion after the conversion back to analog, e.g. with "warm sounding" tube amps.