When I was growing up and coming of age, vinyl (and to a lesser extent, cassettes) were the only real choices. Yeah, there was reel-to-reel tape, but who could afford that? Nearly all of my musical memories are tied to vinyl, with the exception of a half dozen or so CDs that really stand out in my memory.
CDs may come and go from my life (and as I've mentioned here several times, all of them did go after the fire two years ago), but after purging all my vinyl in the late 1980s and rebuilding and augmenting my collection in the 90s through today, vinyl is forever. Even if I don't play it nearly as much as I'd like to.
And while I may balk at paying $35 for a new (or reissued) release, when you take inflation into account, that price is actually on par with the $5-10 I'd pay for stuff back in the day.