The answer will of course be different for everyone, but for me, when I started buying games again in 2012 after a 6 year hiatus after being very disappointed with the gaming industry, it was GOG with DRM-free gaming that lured me back in, and I branched out a bit from there. Overall my experience with gaming has been better with digital distribution than it was in the days of physical media, and so I embraced it again at that time and since.
I believe digital distribution has ended up making it so that each year - is the best year ever in the history of gaming to be a gamer, because not only is there an endless stream of new games coming out every year and it seems to be an ever increasing amount which gives maximum choice in the marketplace, but we have the entire ever growing backlog of video games previously released which are available, with older titles that haven't been available for a while for various reasons also slowly being brought back to life and re-released in a playable form on modern computers.
In addition to the massive availability that unlimited shelf space brings, the costs to distribute the games are much lower than physical copies to the point of negligibility, so games that wouldn't have made business sense to put on store shelves can be made available now and at prices that wouldn't have been profitable enough to be worthwhile in physical form. Also due to the massive availability and competition for entertainment dollars, it leads to many seasonal sales every year with massive discounts, as well as lots of other sales, bundles etc.
This means there is almost always a "bargain bin" of games out there for dirt cheap, whether they are ancient classics, top games of a decade ago or yesteryear, and often even games less than a year old being sold for a song and a dance. This makes it super easy and affordable to someone such as myself to stock up on a multitude of games I always wanted to play or even just try out from years ago, as well as stockpile newer titles all at the price of a cup of coffee or two.
For me it falls into the "pocket change" category to grab 1-10 titles for $3 or less or a bundle etc. as the amount of money it costs is completely meaningless to me. This secures me my own personal library of both newer games and classics to be able to decide to play or even just try out some time in the future whimsically without having to have a strong feeling about them and be willing to pay more.
I don't buy games with the notion that I **must** play them all, but rather because they're so cheap that it's worth it to me to have a collection of tonnes of games to choose from when I'm bored, and they cost next to nothing.
Since 2012 I think I've only spent around $1500-2000 CAD tops on games if that, with 99% of them being $3 or less, and maybe 10 costing more than $5. I've bought one new release - Witcher 3. Add on all of the plethora of free game promotions from various stores, publishers, giveaway sites, GOG forum giveaways, gifts from friends and community members, games that come free with hardware purchase, etc. and I've accumulated 1400 games since 2012. If I divide the total money spent by the number of games owned including freebies, it works out to less than $1.50 per game.
Contrast that with someone who only buys and plays a small number of brand new AAA titles at $60-80 per game as a new release, and the same amount of money would only buy them about 25 games in the same time frame. Nothing wrong with that if that's one's gaming preference/style, but I much prefer a massive library to explore over time and find the gems within, acquired for peanuts.
I don't ever plan to (and never could) play every single one of them, plus any others I acquire going forward, but that's not my intention either.
In short, I'm not buying games to play them. I'm buying games opportunistically to have the option but not the obligation to play them in the future if I feel like it, and for a price that is meaningless to me so no thought needs to be put into it, it's just pull the trigger.