If VHS still existed, and there was no laserdisk or DVD, we would still be in VHS mode of how great the quality is, and wouldn't have a frame of reference of how great DVD quality is. Just think of how when we got a DVD player you could finally skip to any scene in the movie, how you didn't have to rewind the movie, how you didn't have to worry about the tape breaking? Now that is all normal, so now we naturally want better quality as we eventually delved into HD-DVD as they eventually becomes mainstream.
Sometimes I yearn for the good old days of VHS when I didn't know what widescreen was, and I just kinda watched the movie without worrying about the quality, cause that was the extent of quality back then. Then I watch an Anamorphic movie on DVD on my HD-TV and marvel at the quality, so I guess I am one of those fans who just can't go back.