I have heard people praising God of War and Red dead 2 but I have not played either of them.
Personally, I love physical media, and I have definitely noticed more people talking about building up collections.
I don't think that I will ever read digital books. But my pc doesn't even have a place to put discs so I am fine buying games at Good old games/ Steam.
If you are interested in buying a disc drive, you can purchase usb ones pretty cheap and they do a good job. Realistically though, these days, the main reason to have a disc drive is if you want to play older titles that don't have a digital version to purchase.
Red Dead 2 is an amazing game, it's one you can really loose yourself in and become immersed