The problem with online downloads (other than that they are easily shared and not everyone wants that) is that they tend to separate the song from the collection

The latter point is easily fixed. Offer it as one big zip as opposed to letting people choose which songs to buy. And now I've read your full post and you agree with me. Apologies.

The sharing is one that would be a point of trust. If I were to have the physical copy, it would be simple enough for me to share it if I were so inclined (which I'm not).

I can only comment that peddling downloads assumes that all the effort that went into packaging and disc design was really superfluous

I disagree with you there. There's an album I have by a band called Sabaton called "Coat of Arms". I bought it from iTunes after I saw them perform (long story short, I went to see another band perform and the other two acts were good enough to warrant me buying their albums when I got home). Included in the download was a pdf of the liner notes, which for someone like Sabaton is useful - they're a power metal group who's songs are based on historical battles, and I'd like to know what they're singing about.

...any way possible for a savy and persistent searcher to ascertain my 3-D identity.

I don't know how the CDs are currently packaged, but a glance suggests that the Mudcat pseudonyms are marked as the artists. One would assume that the download would follow a similar pattern.

Granted, I'm prodownload, but it's mostly out of cost for me. US delivery has always been stupidly expensive, and I've had problems with custom charges the few times I've done it.