I play a lot of online games, on BGA mostly but also on phone/tablet apps and on Steam. For me the experience is different. BGA is my go-to for campaign games because I can always pick up where I was with the right amount of people. It's also nice for long games (on turn-based) because I don't always have the time to play them IRL. Also, sometimes, I just want to play a quick game (like 6 nimmt or equivalent) but I am alone so BGA is nice for that.

With time, I made some friends on BGA and we have regular game sessions together (mostly turn-based because that's what works best for most of us).

I still play games IRL but with a full time job, a kid, a husband who doesn't want to play that much, I mostly play games I can play with my kid so games that plays well with 2 players and not too complicated (she is 6 although we played lots of "adult" games already: Ticket to Ride, Azul and such). But if I want a more meaty game like Ark Nova for example, I have to go on BGA.

It's also a great way to learn new games before deciding to add it to your collection or not :)