[xyzzy21]

The "leading edge" of most corner technologies are usually better in analog. For example, SDRs in radio are only effective up to a certain data rate and frequency bandwidth. At some point analog signal processing (in this case classic "analog radio") is more effective and often the only possible implementation.

Thankfully I work on the leading edge of several technologies and I'm trained in analog so I see this stuff all the time.

[analog31]

Indeed, something like converting the frequency of a laser to a usable clock signal has to be done in the analog domain, and not necessarily even in the electronic domain. Also, (as Horowitz and Hill pointed out) getting higher performance digital electronics to work requires understanding analog techniques.

I do some analog work too, but today's mantra is: Get it into the digital domain as soon as possible.