I had a really bad experience with Musicians Friend sending me the wrong version of Sonar twice and was wanting the hardcopy so i could have the disks.. but since that experience I'm thinking of just downloading from Cakewalk.. but if I do so is there less content you get with the downloadable version? Is there a different process of registering vs the hard copy version?

There is no physical media available for the current version of SONAR. Musicians Friend should know that. SONAR is only available as a download. The box contains a card with the product code on it, a printed version of the user guide and keyboard shortcuts. With the download version from the resellers you get the product code via email. The product code is used to create the download version in your Cakewalk account.
 
Cakewalk has said they will make physical media available at some later date for a fee. It will be burned on demand.

oh.. well, I received this Sonar box that looked like physical media but I didn't open it or anything because I knew I couldn't use it and I sent it back.. thanks for clarifying this though.. im going to buy off here