i completely get preferring analog media, so if it’s about the sound characteristics (that ‘warmth’), having physical media, etc fair enough. but if the goal of an audiophile is to get the highest quality reproduction of a recording wouldn’t CDs or FLACs be your best bet?
maybe this only really applies for newer music, perhaps digital releases for music recorded analogue are just digitized vinyl or reel to reel recordings but for music produced in DAWs the highest quality version available for that release would surely be either a CD or a digital FLAC release
Firstly, some music is mastered better on vinyl. For those specific cases, the vinyl album is better even though the vinyl itself is not better. I think most people can agree on the mastering discussion at least.
Beyond that, the issue with your thought process is that audiophiles are not all objective. It’s actually a notoriously not objective hobby. Look at the vitriol places like Audio Science Review get for being too measurement focused. That’s a firm rejection of objective measurements, in favour of subjective experience.
And when it comes to subjective experience, people are all unique in what they like and can be heavily influenced and biased by factors outside of the sound. If you enjoy the ritual of playing vinyl, you may literally hear the music sounding better because it’s overall a more fun experience. This is why some audiophiles swear by hyper expensive cables - they objectively do nothing, it’s been proven, but because the owner thinks the cable is doing something, it biases them into hearing improvements that are not measurable. It’s weird, but it seems fairly common.
On the one hand yes, it’s weird. On the other hand, we’re humans, nuanced and sentimental, emotional creatures… and so this is a way for us to experience being human.
Nothing gets me more emotional than lamenting the expensive cables I bought that do absolutely nothing.