Digital was supposed to be a better deal for both parties. Not become a vehicle solely for publishers to squeeze more profits out through a singular distribution channel. Noteworthy PC game releases have only gotten more expensive since they stopped carrying them at stores. It's a bad deal for consumers.
Like anything else, business always wins...in the end.
For me: for PC gaming and electronics, first it was at retail, Circuit City killing everybody w/ good deals. Then, they become the electronics store around here...and well, their prices become to suck for a while. Then, Best Buy challenged them at retail - CC had to try to get competitive again. Best Buy was great for a while at retail for PC gaming (early 2000's) - then, they killed CC and CompUSA. Of course, Amazon also played a big hand in this too - as they became the WalMart's of the Internet and became and still are killing a lot of stores off...since they pretty much sell anything and everything.
Once digital distribution killed retail for PC games, it became the new normal. No more $60-100 at retail, now it's $60-100 at digital. They sell the new style cheap (i.e. digital distribution), to get you into the door (metaphorical door here). Once they (Steam, GOG, etc) have you in the digital door, back to normal pricing schemes.
Steam became the new WalMart's of digital distribution...and now their sales suck. Especially since they dominated the market and even more so now w/ refunds allowed.
Now, we have Bundle web-sites offering some of the best deals - like Fanatical and Humble.
So, yep - now it's $60-100 or more for new digital games day 1, instead of retail - depends on if you buy Deluxe Edition, Gold Edition w/ Season Passes, Ultimate Edition, Super Duper Digital Awesome Collection Edition, etc etc.
Also, with PC gaming getting much easier to the end-user, PC gaming becoming more common, and even less niche - yep, prices are going to....get "meh" here.
Now the new thing is everybody wants to do their own PC gaming version of Netflix - i.e. Microsoft Xbox Live for PC Game Pass, UPLAY+, Origin Insider, etc etc.
[Sarcasm]
Can't wait 'til they try to pull this crap w/ PC-game streaming from their servers too...and to the point they finally get it to perform well, too.
[/sarcasm]