I haven't read through the entire thread but.. Away from the consumer side of things, as an artistic endeavour, the fact that creating an album can make an artist think outside the usual constraints and also focus on pushing themselves to create a cohesive body of work, at a consistent level of quality can only be a good thing for creativity.
Albums definitely suit certain genres better than others. Live groups make a new body of work, tour to promote said new material etc, it all forms a nice cohesive timeline. The more experimental end of electronic music production can use an album to explore various ideas around a cohesive theme. Look at somebody like OPN or Aphex and the ideas and themes that are explored within their albums, that just wouldn't be possible within a shorter form media. Even within genres that don't really do the long player thing, like for example Grime, I can see a good argument for the genre benefiting form a push in that direction. If Wiley had got it together enough to put out his 'Boy In The Corner' the value that as a clearly defined body of work would've held some real weight, in a way that a simple collection of singles doesn't. I don't think that's simply a dictation of a traditional, accepted mind state, it's because putting together a cohesive body of work, at a very high standard, over a short period of time is a worthwhile standard for achievement.