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But you can covert to whatever lossless format you need without worry. Lossless to lossless conversion is possible an infinite number of times (theoretically), vs lossy to lossy you get maybe a couple for free.

As long as you keep the MP3s around, converting to any format for the 100th time is no lossier than the first time. What you need to avoid are chains of lossy formats.

Once upon a time I converted 320kbps MP3s of Dark Side of the Moon to 320kbps OGGs. It ruined a certain cymbal sound.

Never convert between lossy formats, not even once.

It likely won't, that's true. My point remains though: With storage that cheap and lossless audio sources widely available, why would you not use the lossless option?

Why not both?

MP3 is more widely supported than any lossless audio codec. Lossless compression enables the collector to keep an original.

Not everyone is a collector though - for them, MP3 is probably fine, and if they need a different format later they'll probably just stream, re-encode, or re-purchase, in order of likelihood.

Maybe LAME can be renamed to LIME now?