If you’re young, and were born into the age of computers, you may tend to romanticize about the good old days you never experienced. I’ve shot more film than most of you. Digital only became available in the last half of my career and I spent more time shooting film than I have yet shooting digital. I was there. I did it every day. I lived it. It wasn’t that great.....
Film was expensive, and processing more so. The chemicals used in the process were so dangerous that the EPA regulated them. They were officially declared bio-hazards. The heavy metals involved are still doing damage to our ecosystem.
It was hard to make very large prints from film. If you shot for publication you had to use very expensive drum scanners that weren’t all that good.
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The image is what matters. Period. How you got it is only important to you and those in the camera club you are trying to impress.
This a thousand times over. I worked in chem labs for years. Had to wear a haz mat suit to clean the C-41 Machines. It was nasty.