Your Wall of Text is eaten by a grue?
I'm missing the allusions here. Anyway, I don't think the movies and games analogy works all that well either. For the most part, I'd rather just have a digital copy of a movie in a library than accumulate a bunch of DVDs and Blu-rays that I'll probably not look at more than once. Having the digital copy in addition to a disc may be considered a "bonus" for some buyers, but some people are like me--they're just not that interested in physical media. (Sidebar: IMO, this is the only thing that physical media are good for--commentaries. Once technology advances to the extent that these digital stores find clever ways to compress these data to make it pretty easy to stream a movie or TV show episode+commentary that will pretty much be the last nail in the coffin of discs.)
I'll concede that it's possible that some people would buy more boxed copies if there were extra digital copies inside of game packages, but look at the point I made about piracy earlier. There is zero chance that publishers would view that kind of scenario as a win-win.
Look, you've got your viewpoint and I have mine; I doubt we're going to change each other's minds. I just disagree.
Destiny 2 had some level of value for the people who purchased it, played it, and enjoyed it before it was bundled or given away. When I buy a AAA game at near-retail price, I don't feel like I have to justify that because it goes on sale six months later at 50% off retail. I bought it then because I wanted to play it then. If I wanted to wait, obviously I could have. For what it's worth, that scenario of publishers selling for pennies on the dollar, well, that's not going to happen. They'll quit making PC games before they go bankrupt doing it.
I view the collector's edition thing like the before mentioned "whales" in F2P games. Take game, add another $6 worth of low grade metal keychains, tin cases and plastic "resin" statues and sell it for an extra $70 to a certain narrow segment of your clientele. I have too much crap in my house as it is.
I get that too. Lots of folks feel that way and I respect that. I have a lot of crap around my house too. But I only collect a few things, so I allow myself certain indulgences.