Because most individuals would rather blame circumstances than themselves.  It's like a teenager who blames everyone but themeslves for the issues they suffer.  Most developers are Man children. Not mature adults.  

You don't totally get rid of the middle man there are costs that replace some of the middle man cost in digital. "Hosting" a title isn't cheap; it isn't like the publisher/developer gets the retail/logistics part of the money as pure profit. Plus the extra money usually is used to finance retail incentives; for example the money that Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft allows the retailers to retain in the sales of the "points" cards.

I know that Nintendo uses a third party host for the eShop, Akamai, which hosts media streams for companies like ABC. They charge a flat rate plus bandwidth. And just to note that commercial clients don't get free bandwidth or unlimited hosting, I remember getting into a discussion with someone about this a few years back.

And in gaming there really isn't a middle man for retail, at least for the major chains which account for 99% of sales, since they have their own logistics channels. The smaller "mom-and-pop" stores do use them be they are not as middle man as people seem. When I tryed to start my own business the "middle man" was Jack-of-all-Games, and they were owned by Take-Two interactive. I stated it as was because i think they were sold off a few years ago to SYNNEX, who is a middle man company in its truest sense.

Completely off topic: has anyone tried to make a new thread and it isn't showing up the in the forum hot topics? I just made one and I can't see it...

Likely console manufacturers are charging the similar 30% that iOS/Android charge.

Additionally, its still has other important benefits to publishers.

1) the "negligible" but higher net profit
2) the removal of all used markets
3) the bigger push against pirating/theft (of course this goes hand in hand with the overall platform security)

If this is the future, I'll buy games even later, when publishers will release editions with as many DLCs included as possible. I won't ever buy a game that is missing important parts provided separately as premium DLCs.

We like choices! Some people prefer the physical copy due to resale, physical ownership or the ability to lend your games to friends.

Why would you ever support limiting consumer's choice when the cost is not a factor? 

I'm pretty sure that this is coupled with the great discounts we have been having on digital goods on PSN and Xbox live.

I dont think they sell as much as retail in those days straight after launch while the price is still set at max on near max. I believe that digital sales spike when you have price drops. The consumer doesnt see the same value on a digital good as they see in a physical good. But with the right ammount of value reflected on the price, i am sure the consumer embraces it.

In my particular case, i have played mainly on the 360 for 5 years and i didnt buy any digital games aside small Xbox live games. When i changed to the PS3 last year, i have bought about 8 digital ( games that are on retail) games. Why? Price makes all the difference. PSN has great sales.

Its likely negligible because people expect to buy digital games for 1/2-1/4 of the price of the full game. I certainly dont spend more than $10 on any game digitally.