How many plays can you get out of a good record?

The first.

Anything beyond that, your mind is 'filling in the blanks'.

Entropy, y'all.  It's a bitch. ;)

The general rule from the time I started collecting vinyl was to buy 1st pressing after that quality went down, 2nd have your arm and cartridge setup properly back then they used scopes and took 2 hours or more to aline both. Then store your LPs in rice sleeves, but after you play the LP-like tube gear both slowly start degrading as the groves become worn, the cartridge stylus also. Now if your dealer does not invest in scopes and proper equipment the decay and damage to the vinyl accelerates. Back then the guys into audio used reel-to-reel to playback their music and once you heard that you never go back to LP, same as hearing a 45rpm track to the 33-1/3 LP, again the LP came in last. But that was the only game in town for most of us so we lived with it and enjoyed it. After 2001 I went full CD and never looked back, sold my collection of vinyl for $$$$$ and used that money for audio gear. I Miss the covers of LPs and that is about it. Nothing against the format if you enjoy it that is great, but if not as the myth says the format. Reel to Reel is but today they want $450.00 a tape compared to $6.99 back the day in the ’60s and ’70s. Any format is good as the care taken, and even if mastered from a digital source, in fact, that can sound more accurate than coming from a master tape that is long past its prime and has degraded over the past 60 years. And chances are the master is long gone and they are using safety backups or less generation copies, so digital remasters is a life saver bring the sound back to a much higher quaity, 

I can agree with you on most statements; however, 33 1/3 LP can sound superb, the equal of the best digital.  Probably (not probably, certainly) 1/3 of my collection will never see digital format (loss of tapes and lack of interest, especially ethnic music).  That's over almost 10,000 LPs.  Then there's the 78s which will never be digitized.  I must keep all physical formats.  Sure, I have some 1950s RR which are fantastically dynamic and colorful.  I tend to listen to CDs of former LPs first if they were correctly remastered.  Many pop CDs were not and sound much worse than LPs.  Then there are high value jazz LPs.  I don't own many and I have friends that do.  We listen a lot to those.   I own many jazz CDs and enjoy them just as much (it helps to have a high end system with a superior listening room).   You are like my friends who still have 10,000 LPs but for 20 years only listen to their 3,000+ CDs either directly or through EAC thumbdrives for reasons of convenience.  

I have yet to reach an “end of life” for an lp from normal play  Now, physical damage from mishandling situations…Perhaps. Speaks volumes for the media, and used record stores, long may each live. 

End of life for an LP? Maybe those I owned as a child. At 12, I started seriously taking care of my records. Even those I’ve played 100-200 times since 12.