Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

Its not even the price, it's just the principle. If you don't hold something, you can't control it. You could have a license expire or come under dispute on a game, and suddenly you can't play it anymore because some random back county judge issued a ruling. A bit extreme of an example, but what's often more the case, you buy something on a store, and then the console company cuts the store (Nintendo with DS & 3DS for example).

I'm sure the emulation and piracy/preservation community will see us through all of this, but the less popular stuffs going to get lost to time. It's always better if you have physical media somewhere with the files you need.