With a cloud you are depending on someone else to hold your property.
Toadiwithaneye
Yes, but computers are prone to failure, you are depending on a device to hold all your media. I've had backups and backups of backups, still losing things to failure. My books take up space, but they will be there unless my home burns down.
Yes you kind of "own" your ebook, but.... The company that sold it to you can remove it legally form their listings, taking away your ability to download your book.
You can lose your back up, but you can also lose your book. It doesn't change my feelings on the subject. There are physical copies of books that are hundreds of years old and still readable, I have some from the 50s that are in great condition. Take care of them and they will last.
Physical. You do not really own your digital book and you have to depend on a devise that can break/need charging to read.
You have to pay to self host, you have to pay for cloud storage. I am not going to pay to keep books, I buy books and put them on a shelf. I can pull one off and read it when ever I please, I don't depend on any devices to read them, and I like it that way. This is how I feel.