As a side note, around half (or maybe even more) of the new laptops bought into our corner of the company don't have any optical drive, and that has been the state for few years now.
"Museum" and similar talk is marketing lingo.
Many laptops and development systems are locked down, does that mean it's a good idea? Apple removes the headphone jack, and just one USB plug remains, which forces you to use adapters. Is that practical? Reducing options is not necessarily a good idea, just because it's a trend.
I have personally needed optical drive only during the first setup (more than 4 years ago IIRC), and even then, only because I asked for downgraded Windows version. For certain drivers, the only working versions could finally be found on the CD (or was it DVD) that came with the laptop. The downloadable ones had been just updated and they no longer supported the downgraded windows version.
I don't need them often, but it's simply more reliable to have several options. Obviously data is just data no matter the medium.
Having cloud systems is fine as additional option, but nothing you can rely on, vendors have taken downloads down often enough. Do I need software on an optical disc? If it's expensive I prefer to have it like this and
be independent, otherwise I don't care.
But it's certainly easier to store optical discs reliably than doing so with hard disks, and having to make backups of original software as well.
I am a professional software developer, and I need to support various platforms. The faster I can get up and running without having to jump through other companies' processes, the better.
I have seen enough vendors change owners or changing licensing policy or simply not providing download options (or requiring annoying phone calls etc.).
It's all about efficiency.
P.S.: They could provide an SD-card or thumb drive stick or whatever. Now it only means I need to care for another data piece to backup in a reliable way.
Not an improvement!