If someone had handed you a non-analog camera at age 5, you would have “gotten” that too. What’s special about analog to a 5 year old holding his first camera?
Is this about the method of image capture or controls? Are you referring to the traditional discrete controls of an analog camera as compared to the wheel-like and multi-button controls of a digital camera?
My Fuji X-Pro1 is clearly digital, yet it has traditional exposure controls that would be familiar to any photographer from the 1930's. That's why I bought it.
I suspect this part of the discussion has nothing to do with the method of image capture (electronic vs. chemical), but rather the usual controls associated with those genres of cameras.
For whatever it's worth (I suspect nothing), my opinion is that human beings as a species prefer and interact better with discrete controls where one physical control (e.g. aperture ring) affects one and only one thing - as opposed to a wheel and a button that pages and selects through a menu. I believe the rise of this latter method is due to (1) it's cheaper to manufacture such an interface [and modify in firmware] and (2) the number of choices and preferences that need to be selected with digital imaging make discrete controls for every feature impractical - for example, with a film camera, things such as ISO, white balance, saturation, etc., are chosen when you insert the film.
Interestingly, from Canon EOS onward (1987), those discrete controls started disappearing. The Nikon F4 was the last pro Nikon that had them all. Yet, from time to time we see acknowledgement of the power and intuitiveness of analog controls and displays. As examples, there is Fuji X, the Nikon Df, digital watches which let you select an analog display, and airplane cockpits whose electronic displays mimic old analog gauges.
