The good thing about the "new thing" is that the supplier is able to choose the format: AIFF, FLAC, MP3, Ogg-Vorbis, etc. I, for one, don't need the music to be delivered on some storage media that restricts the audio-format. And I'm sick of buying players with limited playback possibilities, too ("an SACD player can play CDs, too - OMG, WOW!"). Next thing to skip: Blue-ray.
HD-DVD, anyone?
The fact is that you will have to buy a new player every couple of years, since the research on new formats will never stop, like everything in the software and computer industry. I mean that new chips, processors, OS's are coming out every six months. So even if you buy a huge hard disk as musical server you'll never be safe forever. BUY! And don't complain.
No, it's not a fact that I will have to buy a new standalone player every couple of years. I'm getting a new computer (or new components) every 4-5 years and use this as my playback device. I have a turntable, CD and DVD players but don't use them anymore. At this point I don't see a reason to buy a standalone player for any format.