I buy most music online
and I know that most studio recordings are downgraded
and yes the quality difference is what it means to an audiophile (I think you can definitely hear the difference sometimes as well, at least if you can't I can)

you can always upscale quality
and there are some people that release high quality audio
also digital sounds used in video games can be perceived at higher quality

the general idea is to make sure that if the quality is there, I will have the ability to hear it without having to worry about anything (system wise) downgrading it