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
It’s aesthetically pleasing and the analog distortion sounds “warm,” but vinyl is not technically a better sounding format.
This all comes down to preferences for masters more than format. For a looong time, vinyl was the only way to hear, say, the Beatles in mono. CD/digital era has come a long way in even the past fifteen years in terms of getting the superior masters out there, but for a long time hunting down old vinyl was key to hearing the best version of a record.