In a strange way, I think I can relate to all of these perspectives. When I started listening to music seriously, you could only purchase, and I enjoyed collecting (LPs, at the time). I had very limited resources, so acquired only about a 100 albums, but I was proud of them!
Later, moving to CDs, I only had time to listen while working, had re-acquired the earlier LPs and expanded my collection to perhaps 300 albums. At this point I had a core of perhaps 40 albums I would listen to a lot.
After a lull of many years of not listening to music (various reasons), I started again two years ago. Six months in, I found myself rather suddenly not wanting to listen to my old music any more (mostly rock), and pining for classical/jazz. At this point, I started collecting again, but now classical. (For me, classical via streaming doesn’t do it – it has to be multichannel).
And then most recently I discovered that I really enjoy listening to streamed Jazz via Qobuz (having always sneered at streaming services).
So for me all of the above have worked at various points – collecting to the extent of my resources; having a small core of favorites; streaming; feeling like I have a huge (virtual) library via streaming. I haven’t ever had anywhere near hundreds of thousands of tracks I really own, but I think I understand the interest in it.