Digital vs Physical Delivery of Content

Is anyone else really confused why in God's name it is cheaper to purchase a physical copy of multiple types of digital content than to download it through the standard mechanisms?

The best example was this past week, where Titanfall 2 and Battefields 1 were both on sale from Amazon.

Buy digital : $ 59 99 Download now!
Buy new : $ 35 00

So the options were to buy a physical copy, which involved producing the disc and assorted material, shipping it to a distribution center, then shipping it yet again to my house, for $24.99 less than buying a digital copy (which the content producer has a higher control on and I cannot re-sell or lend out to another person)!? Yes, there are some costs to the digital distribution (bandwidth and (hah) storage), but those have to marginal compared to the entire supply chain to provide the digital copy. If they were comparable in cost I would definitely do the digital, even though I as the consumer come away less well off (because I cannot share nor can I sell it) because in the end I don't want more little plastic cases taking up space in my bookcases. I will take the hit because it seems the logical, and environmental, way to go.

This problem has also been observed in some cases in music (for example it has been cheaper to buy the CD and get the digital copy for free than to buy the digital copy) and for books.With DRM getting relatively hard to remove and people being relatively lazy, piracy isn't really a concern anymore either.

I just don't get it. We are in the 21st Century, why are we stuck doing this stuff the old way!?

Does the artist affect your enjoyment?

I always find it so fasinating that people are so tolerant of artists, accepting behavior that if you knew the person in real life that you would make efforts to keep away and defriend them.

I know that for me whenever I see/hear music from Michael Jackson that I am less than interested in hearing or seeing anything more from the man (I freely admit that I was apathetic about his death, it really meant next to nothing to me since his behavior to this point had already made him dead to me as an artist). I just don't know how people are so able to separate the person from their work, when to me they are so interrelated. I just can't do it.....

Forgiveness

It continues to amaze me the amount that we, as a society, are prone to let slide in those with talent. Be it sports (too many to count, in particular in the NFL and MLB arena), music/art (really, this is the only field where it is expected that the most skilled are expected to be addicts of some type), politics (sexual improrities as well as financial abound) and (to a lesser degree, which says something about our society) business. We just seem too be horribly accepting of their (massive) flaws and let it slide as though their skill was an excuse. In particular when the individual has recently died (human nature to not speak ill of the dead I guess).

I and at least one other blogger friend have been less than understanding about the national/international mourning for the loss of Michael Jackson... CG actually said, "I have never seen someone hate child molesters as much as you." There are few things said about me that I am as proud of as statement like that... I just cannot understand the amount of sadness/mourning for someone who has shown himself to be such as despicable human being. Rot in hell Michael.... Every bit of good will that was earned for your skill in music was lost for your depicable behavior.