Too quickly, there's not enough enough details. So the DVD is gone, but isn't streaming making up for it?
Back when VHS and DVD's were the thing, you'd pretty much get a very finite amount of choices, and usually went with one of those. Of course, you had the huge rental stores with thousands of flicks, but in most places, the selection was just a small fraction of that.
20 years ago, we'd go to the rental store/kiosk/whatever, set on seeing a movie. So we picked one, of the maybe 30 titles. Could be good, could be bad, who knows.
Today, I spend probably 20 minutes browsing 5 different streaming services before I find anything. And I've probably browed through hundreds of titles in that amount of time.
I'm not sure how much the studios get for letting streaming services show their movies either, compared to the rental stores back in the day, or flat out selling DVDs to consumers.
And then months later there it was available for everyone to see at their homes (with yet another advertising push).
Like he said, the DVD release was like another theatrical release. You could own the film, or rent it and watch it twice if you'd like to - this may sound odd, but it was almost like a ritual. At least for me, renting a movie on Fridays was a whole process.
But it wasn't a chore, it was quite enjoyable. Sometimes frustrating because you were waiting for films for months before they were available... imagine as a kid wanting to watch some Diney or Pixar movie, it could be quite painfull after watching months of advertising for the movie, for toys and merchandising, for McDonalds Happy Meals toys, etc.
Things had a different cadence, a different rhythm, and probably things were appreciated differently.
Mind you I'm not saying "oh those were the days!", I'm saying it was different and apparently it was more profitable for movie makers.
But for me sometimes browsing movies to watch on apps can become quite boring, there's something about the "i want this now, a lot of it, and fast" that I can't quite put my finger on it. Probably delayed gratification plays a role on this.
With that said, the majority of people won't forget it, especially with the media budgets used for advertising - promos, appearances, going on the talk shows tours, PR to news/magazines/, etc that's all coming out of the promotion budget. You probably don't realize it but you get in contact with movie promotional material several times before it launches.
Maybe you like just a particular set of movies, so the majority leave you little impression. I have movies that are completely oblivious to me, others that stick and leave me curious, but probably with so much content, noise and distraction it's normal to don't recall it all.
In my youth I recall that The Matrix, LOTR, Kill Bill, Harry Potter, all left me with big anticipation to watch them, for months if not years.
Streaming has even less choices. The Netflix catalog for example is laughable, and they push even more for their own stuff.
Sad to say, but (semi-legal) services like popcorn time etc. were almost the pinnacle of online streaming. These days, I still have to fly the black flag, from time to time, if I want to find certain titles to watch on the go.