TJ nailed it - there is often a hidden cost (money and/or time) to staying with analog, even if the item in question is not broken. From our experience (church installs), the percentage of churches buying shiney new for the sake of shiney new is quite small - less than 1%. It would be like saying, "Don't sell off the VHS player, it still works." Yes I could convert video files on computer to VHS format, but why?
For signal flow, etc - how many young'ins today (including myself, even though over 30) think in linear fashion? Versus how many think in random fashion? It seems like most are used to digital anything as a powerful 'brain' crunching away behind the scenes, with some sort of simplified interface to access just what is needed, knowing there is a lot more going on that isn't needed to know intimately. Adding a gate - is knowing signal flow essential? I say no - I want a fast, simple way for the 'brain' to provide gating to a channel, with options on what is does and doesn't affect. Thinking in terms of linear flow can be (is?) limiting when digital isn't constrained by it.
Some people think in linear terms, some in random terms. It's interesting to study and see. I happen to be the latter, maybe that's another reason why digital seems to 'click' easier?
