The reality of the situation is that many artists are not releasing digital versions on sites that provide lossless downloads (like bandcamp or beatport). So if you want the highest quality you can get, you're either subscribing to Tidal/Deezer/Apple Music (where you don't own the music) or you're buying a CD.

I couldn't find a definition of "CD quality" or "Hi-Res 48K" on the FAQ so don't know exactly what I would be getting. But as you can see, buying on CD is still about the same price as downloading files yet the artist usually still makes more for CD sales (from my understanding). That doesn't count the fact that I sometimes buy used CDs for much cheaper and the fact that I get to read the album credits.

I still think buying a physical CD and ripping it is a better deal if I want to control my music and don't want it to disappear from a streaming service with no warning.

I'm disappointed that this option will be going away because when it goes away, the cost of buying downloaded files will go up even more.

bandcamp is a good option for the artists that use it.

I'm still not sure where I stuffed my ThinkPad X301, the only machine in the house with a (working (the last time I tried (3 years ago))) DVD.