Calling for cable

I'm currently in a hotel room in Cleveland, and I planned on spending the evening watching some movies on Showtime, since we do not have it at home. Just as one of the movies I wanted to watch started to play, a scattered shower came overhead, and knocked out satellite services to our hotel. This wasn't a massive monsoonal thunderstorm, but rather a much-needed rain that could refresh the plants on the ground. However, it was enough to knock out our channels for a good 25 minutes. In other words, it was enough to make me miss a big chunk of the movie, so I just gave up on it.

This leads me to ask a couple of questions - why is satellite television so popular? I would not want to trust my television to something as sensitive as a satellite, which is very temperamental. I've talked to numerous people who have satellite services, and they frequently have random blackouts due to natural weather movements (or, just randomly for no apparent reason). I'm still amazed that, years after satellite television came onto the scene, it's still so shaky and unreliable. I know that satellite services are widely dependent upon the environment. However, when you consider how much cable has improved in terms of not being so dependent upon the weather, why hasn't satellite?

Are the multiple channels really worth the risk of not being able to watch them? Can you even navigate the hundreds of channels you have on your satellite service? I have digital cable, and there are so many channels I forget about or miss in my perusal of the idiot box. At least, when I do find something to watch, with my cable, there are fewer chances of my picture suddenly going away. I am rather fond of our cable provider, Buckeye CableSystem, and while even their best packages don't offer nearly the same variety and volume of channels as satellite companies, at least their customers can trust that they're going to see what they have.

 It's just frustrating that when I do have access to premium channels such as Showtime, I can't even access them when I want to. Thankfully, the movie I was watching, Big Fan, is on DVD, so I can catch it later. Could I still be watching it if our hotel had cable?

Am I being too harsh on satellites? Have any cable horror stories (as much as I love cable, I will be the first to acknowledge that cable companies aren't perfect)? I'm genuinely curious about the ways and means in which people watch TV.