Hi,
Bit ... I think that a lot of it has to do with what we saw as we were brought up and how our belief systems adjusted to the visuals, and learned from them. We rarely talk about movies as being important, in one's make up and chemistry, but it is in a way that sometimes we do not understand or appreciate.
There was a Hungarian film, something about 19th Century ... that I saw in the Film Festival, and it was about the days when the film camera first came up, and how people reacted to it, and then walked out into the street like nothing happened, but you knew they were changed in a small way that was not visible. And in many ways, this has been the history of film for its 100 years or more.
Analog is how it was all developed ... sort of like listening to Spike Milligan fudging in all directions with the BBC Sound Effects Library and making them all nervous that the records would get damaged ... very "analog" sound effects that were created for the GOONS and when one does it digitally, it does not sound as good. Ex: Take a jet taking off from the LP, and then do it backwards. Now go record it and do it on your DAW. The quality of the digital, ruins the effect that is now full of Windex and Pine Sol, and does not sound as good. Try this with farts, which is even better.
Today, be it Avatasheepdip, or Jurassic Poop, or yet another Star Wartz, or another Mission let's donate to the church, the way many of the effects are used, are, in my film review kind of estimation, not as cogent, and clear, as they could be and I think that too much was done around the sound to match the film, when in the early days of film and radio, the sound effect was almost the whole story! Today, it is insignificant.
One of the folks that plays with sound, and VERY HARSHLY, and I would not recommend him to anyone here, is Gaspar Noe. He intentionally violates the "film conventions" and many times the sound is before or after the event, and it throws you off, and the point of the films, for the most part, is to throw you off, because you are so convinced and manipulated by how things are done in film. Jean-Luc Godard, was great about these, by even talking over them ... well, that scene didn't go well, and the camera was boring, let's try it again, and the film rewinds and then the came, this time does a pendulum thing, watching people's bums on bar stools, but the conversation is ... over there ... and we're not "watching" that conversation, we're watching bums go by! In many ways, it is far more indicative of our attention span, than we give it credit for, but we're so influenced by the generic Hollywood, conventions, that this is yet another reason, why Americans have a hard time with foreign film! Too opinionated. Too weird. Doesn't make sense ... because you have never seen anything like it! Gaspar will stay "inside" a man's mind, so all his crazy thinking is "live", and we can not deal with that and half the audience leaves the film, or the other story that goes backwards, which is a serious acid trip and then some, or the more recent void film, which IS the ultimate reality trip on acid or the best there is, I suppose, and it doesn't quit! Right down to the end, and the "creation", or the sex and having a baby! It won't matter if it is analog or digital, and if you remember 2001's trip, this one is better and more far out, and not just an exercise in colors!
We're not ready for that stuff. Digital, be it a sound effect, or most music, AT THIS TIME, is still in its infancy and we could say that the majority of folks playing with it are just kids trying to learn how to use it all.
There was another Film Festival thing from Holland that was unique, and turns the tables, but it reminds me of this situation with analog/digital ... the whole thing the guy follows his sister the whole day, and the whole thing is done handheld and non-stop, including personal stuff ... and in the end she gets tired of it, and turns on him ... and the camera can not stay with it and the film ends, before we can possibly conclude that the two were going to have sex! So, as long as we are seeing it from a distance, digital seems different and out of it ... but when the time comes, and we're "in it", it will change, and its effects will be as good as the analog ones were. "Enter the Void" is way better on "tripping" than 2001 will ever be, in fact, it makes 2001's version look like kid stuff! But it is not exactly a pleasant film to enjoy otherwise, because of its harshness and shooting style. Such is life?
It's NOT about analog or digital, in the end. It's about the person! We like one because we're used to it, not because it is better or worse!