Indeed. All things man-made are prone to fail eventually.

But if something is mechanical, due to the fact there are moving parts... They do tend to have more points of failure.

The Switch isn't using the same technology in an SD card for it's carts.
It is using ROM, not NAND.

Which is why I'm afraid of my game collection I have hundreds of games, yet sometimes wonder if it was even worth getting them, because they're eventually going to stop working. I just don't know when.

I never really cared too much because once a game come out it was it.

Now my biggest issue atm is all games have day one updates and extras added later.

The hdd space required to keep up with all this is BS.

I would soon rather see hybrid carts with read sections and enough capacity to write the patches and DLC onto and charge me $10 more a game.

That way I can take this cart and put it in ANY system and play it. None of this shit my console died, shit I didn't back it up shit I uninstalled it now the patches are no longer there to patch the game.

Overall, I prefer carts.

Optical media is the worst thing that has ever been invented.

Memory cards are also rewritable which degrades overtime by how often data is read(?) and transferred. Typically, I feel that less than Class 10 cards are likely to fall apart.

Game carts/cartridges are dedicated for gaming which is read-only. That's why older games from NES days are likely to still work.

True, it should last longer. My old MSX cartridges gave out long ago though, although last time I tried my old GBA it still worked. I've never had problems with old CDs bar some that got scratched badly (or in one case snapped in half in gamer rage :/) Stepping on a cartridge won't do it much good either I would think.

It's much more likely my kids lose / misplace the tiny cards long before they go bad.

Cartridges (Flash memory) easily, everything is on side of cartridges (better loading times, better durability, they are smaller, better feel and better look, higher value, there is no need to instal game on HDD with them, no need for laser in console..) compared to discs expect cost, but even higher costs for platform holder doesn't really matters because for instance Zelda BotW on Switch has same price like Zelda BotW on Wii U.

Whatever my favorite company is using.

What if your favourite company uses both?