I get a lot of enjoyment from my stereo other than listening. I love the look of it. I love the beauty of P8 turntable. I enjoy handling the cover of an LP, the artwork and liner notes.
Honestly, I believe a lot of vinyl lovers are far more like you than they'd admit, with a large portion of their vinyl enjoyment being in the "care and feeding" of the vinyl experience. I've always considered it a chore myself, but to each their own. If you enjoy that part of the experience, then it's a bonus on top of the music.
I do miss the album covers and liner notes that disappeared (or minaturized into oblivion) with CDs. But I still have about a thousand I can dig out to look at if I get too nostalgic. But it isn't the same as buying a new album and reading through it the first time as you listen to the new tunes.
I don't stream from hi-res services, but as @sj00884 described, I also stream from Pandora while working, or listen to ripped CDs, through headphones and laptop while working. Quality is fine for me since I'm concentrating on what I'm writing or reviewing. And I have found a great deal of music over the last decade that I otherwise wouldn't have, and now I own much of it on CD. I have to say that the whole concept of "critical listening" to *music* seems a bit bizarre. I listen to enjoy the music, not to "critically evaluate" it. Those two concepts are mutually exclusive in my experience. YMMV of course.