Underworld may have given you exactly what
you wanted, but that's not the case for me or (I think) a fair number of other people here.
What Jack White and that Pitchfork piece fail to address is
why we should "desire them, hunt to find them, etc". Are they creating work for fans to listen to or collectors to fawn over? If it's actually about the music (as so many artists claim), shouldn't the aim be to get it into the hands of everyone who wants to listen to it? If it's actually about creating "collectibles", then they should stop dissembling and admit that that's why they release limited hard-to-get versions of items that could just as easily be mass produced.
Of course sometimes artists are interested in serving both groups, and for Jack White and Third Man's
The White Stripes that seems to be the case: this reissue contains no music that isn't available elsewhere. Unfortunately that isn't the case with
Bungalow with Stairs and so many other releases.
IMHO more artists should be paying attention to and following the path that Trent Reznor and a few others are blazing, aggressively taking advantage of the latest infrastructure and technology to make their work available to fans at reasonable prices and head off profiteering. It does require some extra care and occasional concessions on distribution methods, but the end result is fans getting more of what they love and artists getting a much greater share of the money spent – a win/win for everyone (except the
leeches scalpers, I guess
).