On paper (is that a gallicism?), sure, downloading games (legally, of course) is better. Now, if you have a crappy Internet connection like mine, you're better off with discs. My peak download rate is 170kB/s, which means I'd need more than 2 days (about 49 hours) to download a 30-gigabyte game. I like the way Steam works: you buy a game and then it's yours forever. I really do. But that's not restricted to digital purchases, fortunately. You can still buy the retail version of that game, activate it and then install it. It'll be yours to keep forever just as well. I read a very interesting article about the digital market recently, but I don't remember where (all I remember is that it featured lots of figures). This article concludes that even though there are more and more games that can only be purchased online and downloaded through Steam or another similar platform, we're not ready to have an all-digital market yet, just because there are still lots of peasants like me who simply can't afford to download tens of gigabytes in just a matter of minutes. This isn't North Korea.
There are tons of console and PC games that can be played by 8-year-olds, but yeah, parents should be more responsible and not let their 5-year-old kids play Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty. But that's not the point. The point is, a console is easier to use than a PC, overall. You don't even need discs anymore, if that's what bothers you. The only downside is: if it breaks, there's not much you can do about it, unless its warranty hasn't yet expired. On the other hand, you're less likely to experience crashes and stutters when you play on a console.
Anyway, could we please get back on topic?