>ebooks have wildly improved the footnote experience
I actually disagree with that one--at least for certain types of footnotes. When I was an IT industry analyst I got into the habit of using footnotes at the bottom of the page to provide parenthetical detail, substantiation, caveats, etc. that I thought might be useful but which would break up the flow of the writing. On the page, this works well because you can just glance down. On an ereader, it's often more distracting than just putting it inline would be.
For just references that you'll only sometimes want to look at, it's fine but for the way I often use them, I liked the old way better.
I mostly agree with your broader point. The fact that used books are often cheaper and you can't typically lend your ebook when you're done probably also contribute.
