Digital Distribution

I'm not at all against digital distribution. XBOX Live Arcade (XBLA) and Steam are amazing. I do, however, prefer to own physical media and have the ability to play my games without being connected to the Internet. I'll still bite the bullet and submit to these licenses and downloads, but I'm cringing just a little when I do it. What really upsets me is when none of the choices I'm given are ideal. I understand that this is still a fledgling industry finding its way, but strange price differences and an overwhelming number of accounts to manage make me want to avoid the whole thing altogether.

I generally go with the PC platform over the consoles when I have the choice, but that rule has failed to make my life any easier. I made anew account and bought Penny Arcade's first game through their Greenhouse service instead of XBLA , only to see it released on Steam (where I already had an account) shortly thereafter; I really want to play Braid, but I have no idea when it'll be released on PC; Bionic Commando: Rearmed is more expensive on the PC and will not be available via Steam; American McGee's Grimm looks like the kind of game I'd love, but I can only play it with a GameTap subscription (which I assume means I can't go back and play the game once my subscription runs out). I kinda wish Steam was ubiquitous or that Microsoft had just gotten out of the gate first with a Game For Windows Live Arcade and done it properly from the beginning.

*sigh*

I'm not saying that I want platform exclusivity or a clearly superior platform; just some consistency across the board, especially on the PC side of things.