Ummmm - I don't get it!

Please help me understand something..... our answering machine died (don't worry - that is not the part you are explaining.... I get that part), so that means 2 things......

1.  You will no longer hear Scott Wade's voice saying "Hello this is Tim and Sara Pippus' house..." when you call us.... unless we can talk him into coming back and redoing it (Scott is the former minister at our church in Weyburn.  He and his family were visiting us one day and he recorded that message without us knowing it.  We thought it was funny and left it on there for like 12 years).

2.  I looked into "Sasktel Message Manager" as an option for replacing our machine (for those who don't know, Sasktel Mess Manager = our phone company's own messaging thingy thing..... I know that is very technical - sorry - I tried to explain it as best I could).

Anywho...... SasktelMM is $6/month (unless you get it in a bundle with a bunch of other things and then it is $10 for the bundle and an additional $2 for MM). 

I just went to Canadian Tire and bought the machine you see above for $28 taxes in.  And it is digital!  No squeaky tapes.  No sitting through 46894508694058 messages (you can skip to the next one just like MM). 

Now, I know that no one has answering machines any more and the MM is "way cooler".... I just don't understand why.

Worst case scenario:  If this machine dies in 5 months, it has paid for itself.  Anything after that is just gravy.

Can anyone explain what I am missing here. As far as I can see, the answering machine is still the way to go.

In fact, the only thing that would make it better is having Scott's voice on the outgoing message again.