fwiw, all 3 of MySQL's binlog formats (statement-based, row-based, mixed) are still actually logical replication:
* Statement-based is logging raw write SQL
* Row-based is logical effects of executing that SQL
* Mixed uses statement-based for everything except statements that are non-deterministic or otherwise unsafe for statement-based replication
Physical replication in MySQL would be storage-engine dependent. For example, in InnoDB physical replication would mean shipping the InnoDB transaction logs rather than the separate binary logs. Alibaba built something to do this, and from what I understand Amazon may be doing something along these lines under the hood in RDS MySQL and/or RDS Aurora.
Logical replication has the problem that missed messages can have really nasty effects on your data down the road.