Most people don’t live out in BFE, you know. And if you have a strong enough signal, you get the same quality signal as the strongest signal; it’s a consequence of digital. If you get a signal powerful enough to adequately decode, you’re getting the whole thing at the best quality. If you don’t, you don’t get anything it can show. It’s all or nothing- for the same reason, there’s no benefit to expensive HDMI cables, BTW.
Analog is analog… you can partially decode it and have a cruddy picture or static-ey sound or whatever, but your quality is totally dependent on signal quality.
I don’t think the switch was done as a customer improvement for the tiny percentage of TV consumers who have analog televisions and live in the boonies; it’s mostly so they can broadcast all the nifty stuff that comes with digital- more resolutions, better sound, different aspect ratios, etc… and not have to simulcast and resample/rework that stuff for old-timey craptastic TVs.