Taters, I do agree with you that there is a thrill that comes with being able to set up and get that last iota of performance from a vinyl rig. (Akin to the satisfaction of being able to work on your own car.) Unfortunately, I think that many (?most?) vinyl owners have no idea what they are leaving on the table because they can't or won't go through the hassle of learning to set it up.
I'm a radiologist and we migrated from analog images nearly 10 years ago and I wouldn't go back. A perfect analog chest X-ray on a young, healthy patient is a thing of beauty...problem is that it represents a pretty small sample of actual patients that you see. Likewise a great analog recording is probably the apex of recorded sound but unfortunately, that's only a small percentage of recorded music. With digital radiography, you can change parameters and turn a suboptimal study into a readable exam. The lack of user interactivity frustrates and exasperates me about digital music.
Hey, I'm a record collector first and audiophile second. The thrill of chasing down and acquiring that hard to find pressing of [fill in the blank] is like crack for me. But like illicit drugs, vinyl is an expensive hobby where you have to watch for unscrupulous sellers. Even new vinyl releases are significantly more expensive than their digital counterparts. Neither do I care for cleaning, storing and caring for records. I do it because the only thing analog has going for it versus digital is better sound (most of the time). But given the convenience and portability of digital music, if and when digital sound quality equals analog, I'm more than ready to switch.
Back to spinning the Vegh String Quartet playing a little Bartok on an original mono Columbia slab o' vinyl...