"Larry The Radio Guy", the (you?) radio broadcasting guys are the ones guilty of shameless compression. Vinyl allows for a considerably higher dynamic range, CDs - and all other digital technologies - have no such restriction at all. You may well be right though, that modern productions of popular music tend to be more strongly compressed than ever, but it is the producers' free decision.

The lifespan of CDs is limited indeed, but data as such can live forever, without any loss of quality. Backup techniques are available, by far safer, cheaper, and taking less space than vinyl collections. We just have to use them. (BTW: make digital scans from your family heritage of photos, documents, films, magnetic audio and video tapes, rare vinyl records, etc. - with backups. Though paper, vinyl, etc. might outlive the data, but the converse is more likely, especially for the magnetic stuff.)