No, the gamer demographic won't let them die.
Microsoft had a push in the right direction with the moves they were experimenting with for the Xbox One: unfortunately, they had to backpedal on them because people were too outraged.
Gamers didn't see the XB1 as a move towards disc-less consoles. They saw it as additional rules to their current disc-based paradigm.
Removing HDDs and optical drives from laptops was a bold and risky move by Apple, but it worked. MS had the chance to show leadership in consoles, but chose to play both sides instead.
The "gamer demographic" was upset because they felt like something was being taken away (easy used game sales and purchases) without any clear benefit in return (same old prices). Making them out to be luddites who don't want to get with the disc-free times is unfair.
An example: A digital copy of Darksiders II is $59.99 on XBox Live (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Darksiders-II/66ac...), and a physical copy is $16.99 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Darksiders-II-Xbox-360/dp/B0056WJA30/r...). Darksiders II came out nearly a year ago, and MS still charges as if it were a brand-new game.