I agree, the difference with CD is you can make a 100% identical copy of it, so the physical medium just doesn't have the same value. I store all mine on a hard drive as lossless FLAC files for convenience.
Like your self, i would love to hear a proper R2R setup. I recently restored a vintage cassette deck and was blown away with how good it sounds, way better than i thought possible from a little cassette. A good R2R setup must be pretty special.