not really long time, certainly not 20 years, digital camera quality by the end of 90s was pretty bad (at least those for reasonable prices, bought my first by then) comparable with phone cameras by the end of 00s, where you had relatively decent Nokia Symbian phones, so the difference is like ~10 years, similar with social media (Facebook), which was becoming a thing by the end of 00s

but I agree with overall sentiment digital cameras allowed basically unlimited number of photos compared to film cameras and were revolutionary in this aspect not being limited by expensive film rolls and related expenses