SmokedMeat
Gamer™
1) Digital generally has to be match Physical so not to piss off the still very important retail. This will be around for a while.
How important do you think retail is to physical copies of a small indie game? The ball is in whose court here?
Because for one, I don't picture big box retailers buying up many copies of Rime the way they would something like Assassin's Creed. In fact I doubt most retailers would give it the space. Maybe GameStop if any, but the writing is on the wall in regards to the digital future. So for a small indie to release the digital version at $10 cheaper then physical, which is actually parity with every other version; I don't see retailers having much to say.
Edit: You also mentioned Vita carts costing less then Nintendo's. If that's the case then right there is something Nintendo can do to help out. Because not cutting the smaller guys a break is going to hurt them on Switch if they're forced to up the price.