Side note -I wonder if Neal Stephenson is
psychic.
I haven't used a paper dictionary in years. But I wouldn't pay a service for one either. I'm usually content with the online dictionaries that are available for free.
I'd be more interested to see what ebooks could do for the field of lexicography. You could get an awful lot of excellent statistical data from all the ebooks available, and provide actual references for usage examples linking to an ebook. My guess is that lexicographers actually love the digital movement as it makes their job easier and their output much richer.