Do they want the vinyl itself or do they want the cover art and so forth?
Anecdotal data from my Gen-Z daughter, currently a college freshman, is that they want the cover art. Her dorm room walls are decorated with vinyl albums in frames where they cannot be listened to.
I'd say it's varied & most often a combination of multiple things.
- They want the cover art
- They want a physical token representing an artist they like
- They want to financially support the artist in a direct way
- They speculate they might get a player someday (much akin to book buyers leaving books on their shelves unread for years on end)
1 of the above might be the primary driver for any given buyer but I'd assume all of the above play some part in their motivations.