Is it though? You can flip through a catalog that would put even great record stores to shame effortlessly. You could just choose to listen to your favorites over and over instead, but discs hardly prevented that.
But having all the music is essentially the same as having none of the music. Having access to parents’ music is about the curation more than the expanse. This is why I still buy my music rather than rent it with something like Spotify.
I don't find that's true at all. I've discovered quite a few genres this way that I might not have ever bothered to check out if I had to go buy an album first (after all you want to be pretty sure you are going to like it before you part with your money).